Football Leagues
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Lots of smoke but no fire The St George Illawarra Dragons were formed at the close of the 1998 NRL season when the St George Dragons merged with the Illawarra Steelers. Technically it is a new entity and has never won a premiership. However in reality, it is just viewed as St George with Illawarra added to their name. In their glory days, St George was the most feared club in the league, winning a staggering 11 consecutive premierships from 1956 to 1966. Aside from setting benchmarks of excellence, the club also set an example in the code of conduct. The club's champions such as Provan, Langlands, Gasnier and Raper were not just great footballers, they were great men. In 1963, a photographer snapped an image of Norm Provan and West's Arthur Summons in an embrace after St George defeated Wests 9-6 in one of the muddiest Grand Finals ever. Titled "The Gladiators", the image was held up as the symbol of sportsmanship under which the game should be played. Later it was caste in bronze and became the league's premiership trophy. By the 80s, the glory days had well and truly faded. The club's home ground of Kogorah was run down and badly in need of repair and so in 1986, St George made the SCG their new home ground. In 1988 they moved on to Belmore and in 1989, they came full circle when they returned to the dilapidated Kogorah Throughout the 90s, the club just couldn't reclaim its fire and so weak did they play, the fabled 11 premierships only seemed possible in a child's imagination. It was the demise of the glory days that forced the Dragons to merge with Illawarra. In many respects, it was an ideal merger as both teams wore the same red and white colours. They also had different strengths (or perhaps more accurately, Illawarra lacked strength), that were conducive to a strong merger. Whereas St George had great traditions, legends and success, Illawarra didn't have any. Illawarra was granted admission to the New South Wales Rugby League First Division on the 13th December 1980. Although it had a passionate fan base, it existed on a shoestring budget and had never been able to entice the champions to play down south. In almost two decades, they never won a Grand Final and never even came close. Although the merger has largely been a success, it is still shackled by the problems of trying to represent two geographic bases at the same time. St George had enough trouble maintaining Kogorah when it played all their games there, it is impossible when the games are halved. In an ideal world, the Cronulla Sharks would go bankrupt and the Saints would take over their stadium, nicely situated between St George and Wollongong.
Roy Morgan research 2004 - when compared to other NRL supporters
2006 - when compared to other NRL supporters
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Invention of Australian sports Cricket
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