Broncos Too Tough for Dragons
The St George Illawarra Dragons are the first minor premiers to be bundled out of the NRL finals series without a win since the McIntyre system was introduced in 1999. This comes following their second straight defeat in the 2009 NRL finals series. The lost to the Brisbane Broncos 24-10.
The very first play showed Brisbane’s intent as they looked to win their first final in seven attempts at Suncorp Stadium. From the kickoff return St George’s Justin Poore was crunched in a huge tackle by Ashton Sims and Nick Kenny.
It was this attitude in defence that was carried througout the game and left the minor premiers without many scoring options.
Brisbane put up a wall in defence that frustrated the Dragons. This showed when instead of pressing for a try the Dragons took a shot for a penalty goal from long range. The shot missed and shortly after the Broncos stung the Dragons with a try.
Karmichael Hunt scored a double in the first half and a Brett Morris try to St George made it 12-6 at halftime.
The Broncos took control of the match with early tries in the second half, both through kicks from Peter Wallace. Jharal Yow Yeh caught a mini bomb to score and Alex Glenn ran onto a grubber for his try. At 52 minutes the score was out to 24-6. Another Morris try gave a slight chance to the Dragons but the Brisbane effort did not slacken and they closed out the win.
The only dark spot to come from the game is an ankle injury to Broncos halfback Peter Wallace. He is likely to be ruled out of next weekend’s match against Melbourne Storm at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne.
Darren Lockyer was also hobbling around after the match so he is expected to have a light week on the training paddock ahead of the crucial match against Melbourne.
You may remember that last year the Storm knocked Brisbane out of the finals race when they scoring the match winning points on the final play of the day. Brisbane will be looking to get revenge for that.
The other match to decide the 2009 NRL grand finalists will be played between the Bulldogs and Parramatta.
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