Year in Review - Part XII of XVI

Coming from a family of Saints supporters, it gives me great pleasure to be able to write about them being knocked out this week. 1979 must be bittersweet for them, because the year I was born marked the last year Dragons won the Premiership.

St George Dragons or Bring Back Brownie

Wendell decides not to mark his wing, and Soward learns why...

Season Highlight: Toss up between the Minor Premiership and the case of Coronas Brett Morris won from his brother Josh. The JJ Giltinan shield was a reward for their surprisingly powerful regular season, and gave life to the old cliché “they’ve been the best team all year.”

Season Lowlight: Obviously this new batch of red and whites wanted to party like it was 1999 - and so they did, choking (albeit a bit earlier) when the premiership was in their grasp. On the plus side, Wayne Bennett still refuses to panic.

Most Valuable Player: Jamie Soward - while he struggled when the pack wasn't going forward, his speed and passing was magic. He also took a dive to pull the obstruction penalty against the Bulldogs, which ultimately won the Dragons the minor premiership. I think that he will mature as a footballer quickly in the years ahead, which will result in commentators starting to call him James.

Most Worthless Player: Darius Boyd. The only thing less than the number of words he spoke in his one and only interview for the season was the number of tries he scored.

Telling Statistic: Soward and Hornby both played a total of 2084 minutes for the season, with a surprising average of 80.15 minutes per game. Some may point to the fact that the Dragons played golden point against the Storm, but I think that it is obviously blatant cheating, and points should be deducted.

Quote that sums up their year: Wendell introducing Nathan Hindmarsh: "I'm here with one of the greatest players in Rugby League... myself". Boyd could learn a few things from the Big Dell's interview techniques... Another pearler, the Zen Master’s fingerprints are all over this Dean Young quote after they got bundled out by the Broncos: “We’re on a journey. This is only the beginning.”

2010 Outlook: Given the Zen Master took 5 years with the Broncos to win a premiership, I'm predicting big things for the Dragons in 2013. But in 2010, Wendell will grow a moustache to channel Shaft.