It was tough watching an emotional Tyrell Sloan in tears and being comforted by Latrell Mitchell after full-time in the Charity Shield.
Sloan had a few errors in the opening half, botched a kick in the second half after he had made a break, and even lost the ball on the final play when dragged to the ground.
It was a forgettable afternoon for the young fullback – and a forgettable afternoon performance by St George Illawarra.
Even though it was only a trial in Mudgee, things are looking bleak for the Dragons. They deserve to be in the conversation for the wooden spoon.
Sloan is only 20 but clearly feeling the pressure of having to make the No.1 jersey his own.
To be fair to Sloan, if he was at one of the powerhouse clubs, he would be held back and given time to work on his game. He plays with plenty of energy, glides across the ground, but is clearly lacking confidence.
Alex Johnston denies Dragons winger Mikaele Ravalawa a try in the corner on Saturday.Credit: Getty
Coach Anthony Griffin has plenty to work on before the Dragons kick off their campaign in round two. The TV coverage reported Griffin told his players at the break, when they trailed 26-0, that Souths wanted the win more.
Souths triumphed 42-24 to make it their 10 wins from the past 11 Charity Shields. But never had the gap between the Dragons and Souths been so wide.
Souths can go all the way this year, and the sight of Mitchell, Cody Walker, Damien Cook, Cameron Murray fit and in full flight will ensure the Bunnies are destined to push deep into another September.
Mitchell crossed for a simple try late in the first half when Cook scooped up the ball from the back of a scrum and accelerated to his right to put his fullback over. It should not have been so easy.
Walker, Isaiah Tass and Alex Johnston were also a constant threat early down the left side of the field, and combined for the club’s best try in the opening 40 minutes.
Coach Jason Demetriou was happy to give plenty of his big guns plenty of game time.
The Dragons scored four tries in the second half, but the game was well and truly over.
Cook said after the game the club had enjoyed a decent pre-season, and there had not been too many changes to their roster, which led Penrith 12-0 in the preliminary final before losing.
“We haven’t had too many changes to our side, and everyone in that second tier have lifted and gone to another level and they’ve made training [go to] a much higher standard,” Cook said.
“I’d like to hope what we saw today is a stepping stone going into round one and getting off to a good start this season, because we don’t want to chase our tail like we did at the end of last year.”
As for Mitchell, and the maturity he had shown to comfort Sloan, whom he played alongside last week with the Indigenous All Stars, Cook said: “He’s a great leader, especially within the Indigenous culture ... they all look up to him. You saw Sloan a bit emotional, he’s worked hard to be where he is, I think he’s a very talented player, he has a lot of skill, he should have played more football last year, but he’ll play a lot more this year.”