Round 13
Dragons 8 d. Eels 1

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Dragons and Eels slug it out with further referee controversy
Sat June 3, 2006
St George Illawarra and Parramatta revived great memories of tough games from yesteryear when both sides slugged it out in a torrid Friday night match with the Dragons emerging 8-1 victors with the only try came in the final two seconds.

Points were like Gold as Sydney saw something even rarer than points in last night's game - Rain.

Unfortunately such a tough match where both sides had to earn and fight for field position will be remembered for the disgraceful refereeing effort of Sean Hampstead who did his part to ruin what was otherwise a great game of football. Parramatta should have been awarded a penalty in a good goal kicking position midway through the second half but ruled the Dragons weren't off-side when Clint Greenshields dropped the bomb.

Hampstead's major blunder came at the end with the Dragons holding onto a 2-1 lead when he called time off for a quick scrum and than blew his whistle midway through the scrum throwing the Eels into complete chaos and Matt Cooper swooped on a loose kick from John Morris to score right on the siren.

Parramatta is the only team to win a Grand Final in the history of the Premiership without scoring a try and they nearly did a rarity in today's style of touch football where for 76 minutes they kept the Dragons scoreless.

No points were scored until the 70th minute when John Morris slotted over a drop goal with little pressure on him. It was the first time since Clayton Friend when playing for North Sydney in 1989 was the scoring opened with a one-pointer - far cry from the days of Eric Simms, Neil Baker or Terry Lamb who were frequent one-point exponents. Norths ended up losing 14-1 that day as Western Suburbs inspired by English imports Ellery Hanley and Garry Schofield got the victory.

The one-pointer from Morris lifted the intensity of the match as the Eels grimly fought to hang on and St George Illawarra had to find ways to score points.

Ben Hornby leveled the scores in the 76th minute with a wobbly but effective drop-goal and gave the Dragons the lead heading into the final minute with a well-timed drop-goal to make the scores 2-1.

Drama happened at the end with the Hampstead decision, which resulted in allegations that Parramatta halfback Jeremy Smith pushed the man in charge.

Slogfest games are good for Rugby League and points should always be worth gold where good attack has to beat good defence and tighter games often see the brilliance of footballers shine through above the fitness and speed of athletes.

However in saying all that, Hampstead's performance showed the massive decline in refereeing standards and this on top of the performances of Ben Cummins and Paul Simpkins earlier tonight where both the victors had to overcome some dubious decisions to get the points. The performance of referees first declined with the invention of the Video Referee and has rapidly declined since Robert Finch has been in charge. Finch has to go and all referees and touch judges need to be made professional.

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