It took St George Illawarra just 18 minutes to seal the latest chapter of their blood feud with neighbours Sharks tonight.
Aided by an 80-20 possession split early on, the Dragons raced to an 18-0 lead after as many minutes on their way to a 38-8 triumph over their woeful Shire-based rivals at WIN Jubilee Stadium.
With the hosts looking to recover after a difficult representative season and the Sharks on a four game winning streak, the rivalry round clash was the most anticipated Botany Bay derby in recent memory.
However, the Dragons erased all memory of their sub-par Origin period – and avenged a shock 16-10 round two loss - with a merciless performance against an overwhelmed opponent.
The defending premiers provided a fitting farewell to superstar centre Mark Gasnier and Newcastle-bound coach Wayne Bennett and fullback Darius Boyd in the trio’s final regular season game at Kogarah.
More importantly, the joint venture club showed they were still capable of reaching the levels they achieved in snaring the past two minor premierships and last year’s title.
The Dragons (29 points) moved back to 3rd spot after starting tonight’s clash in fourth, while the Sharks (10th place, 18 points) wasted a chance to go as high as seventh.
In the first half, the Dragons smelt blood down the Sharks’ right edge and scored three times down that side for a 24-0 half-time lead.
Matt Cooper, who captained the Dragons in the absence of the injured Ben Hornby, drew first blood in the fourth minute.
Brett Morris outdid Cooper four minutes later, somehow putting the ball down despite the attention of three defenders and originally looking to offload to Boyd. The NSW flyer was in again in the 13th minute, but Boyd’s final pass was ruled forward.
Prop Michael Weyman crashed over under the posts in the 18th minute to all but kill the match as a contest before Cooper was held up four minutes later.
The Dragons went to the left in the 37th minute, but it was Nathan Fien’s inside ball to Jake Marketo that produed try number four.
Sharks didn’t help their cause in a nightmare opening stanza – although they had a respectable completion rate (just four errors to the Dragons’ two), they were forced to make 183 tackles to 121 and missed 19 tackles.
The errors the Sharks made were often in the Dragons half, denying them the chance to get on the scoreboard.
Their night got worse in the 44th minute when centre Matthew Wright sustained a suspected neck injury in an innocuous tackle involving Weyman and Adam Cuthbertson.
The 20-year-old was taken to hospital for precautionary scans.
The Sharks salvaged some pride Josh Cordoba crashed over the 46th minute and Colin Best in the 54th minute for 24-8.
Nevertheless, the Dragons started grinding their opponents out of the match intheir trademark style, starting with Jamie Soward’s 63th-minute penalty goal.
The Boyd-Morris nexus nearly played dividends again in the 67th minute, but the Kiama junior fumbled his fullback’s offload with the line begging.
Two minutes later Soward scared in farcical circumstances – the Sharks thought the NSW Origin pivot knocked on from a score and were flat-footed as Soward dashed to the line for 32-8.
Sharks 2012 recruit Jon Green completed the demolition in the 77th minute to take the Dragons to 38-8.
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