{"id":689348,"date":"2026-05-23T11:21:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/689348\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T11:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:21:21","slug":"st-george-illawarra-dragons-winless-streak-extends-to-11-games-after-heavy-loss-to-new-zealand-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/689348\/","title":{"rendered":"St George Illawarra Dragons: Winless streak extends to 11 games after heavy loss to New Zealand Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Updated May 23, 2026 \u2014 8:34pm,first published 7:44pm<\/p>\n

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Towards the end of the first half at Kogarah on Saturday night, a lone voice in the main grandstand attempted to fire up the Dragons chant.<\/p>\n

He persisted for about 10 seconds before giving up.<\/p>\n

St George Illawarra supporters haven\u2019t had much to shout about this season and they were given few reasons to do so in a 30-12 loss to an under-strength New Zealand Warriors in wet weather in Sydney\u2019s south.<\/p>\n

Undone by errors, it was the Dragons\u2019 11th successive defeat this season.<\/p>\n

They are now only two more away from sharing the unwanted title of the longest winless start to a campaign in NRL history.<\/p>\n

That belongs to Newcastle, who lost 13 in a row at the beginning of 2005. The Knights came back to win eight of their final 11 matches, but they had Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus. The Dragons \u2013 who play the Broncos and Sharks in the next fortnight \u2013 do not.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Warriors celebrate a Te Maire Martin try against the Dragons on Saturday.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Dean Young\u2019s team fought hard even as doubles to third-choice Warriors halfback Te Maire Martin and winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira threatened to make the scoreline really untidy.<\/p>\n

None gave more than the emerging Couchman twins, Ryan and Toby, regarded as key members of the club\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

But after the prolific Dallin Watene-Zelezniak took an intercept to complete his own pair of tries in the closing stages, there were boos as the final siren sounded.<\/p>\n

The result was further soured by a dislocated shoulder suffered by Hayden Buchanan which forced Clint Gutherson to spend much of the evening at centre and Tyrell Sloan to deputise at fullback.<\/p>\n

\"HaydenHayden Buchanan leaves the field injured early in the match.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Gutherson himself was troubled by a new knee issue, having played through one on his other leg this season, while Damien Cook limped off in the final moments with an ankle problem, although he was confident it was not serious.<\/p>\n

On a rainy night and with the Dragons in the midst of such a torrid season, only the most rusted-on club faithful braved the uncovered terraces and hill at St George Venues Jubilee Stadium.<\/p>\n

The raincoats and umbrellas could not shield them from more disappointment.<\/p>\n

The Dragons hit the lead early when Hamish Stewart sent Setu Tu over in the corner with an overhead pass and they spent sufficient time deep in the Warriors\u2019 territory.<\/p>\n

\u2018To have those fans turn up, pay their hard-earned [and] sit in the pouring rain, we appreciate it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Interim Dragons coach Dean Young<\/p>\n

However, a recurring stream of handling mistakes, poor decisions, on top of a lack of class, thwarted their efforts to capitalise on their chances.<\/p>\n

Veteran centre Valentine Holmes was the guilty party on three occasions in the first half alone, continuing his slide in form this season, while an ambitious cut-out pass from Sloan sailed over the sideline to torch another opportunity.<\/p>\n

Young had singled out the Dragons\u2019 ball control as an area he wanted improvement in following a spirited performance against competition leaders Penrith.<\/p>\n

While the conditions were always going to be challenging, there was far too much dropped ball to beat most sides, let alone the high-flyers they were up against.<\/p>\n

\"HamishHamish Stewart is tackled on Saturday.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Young admitted the error rate made it almost mission impossible against the Warriors and conceded the Dragons had also been beaten in the physical battle, although he was pleased with their resolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys kept on fighting all the way to the end and that\u2019s what I expected,\u201d Young said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a tough spot \u2013 we appreciate all the fans turning up tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we\u2019re sitting on the ladder and to have some of those fans turn up, pay their hard-earned [and] sit in the pouring rain, we appreciate it. We\u2019ve got a fan day tomorrow and all the boys are going to be thanking everyone who turns up tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

The Warriors were certainly not perfect themselves but were clinical enough when it mattered.<\/p>\n

They were too strong despite being without State of Origin representatives Mitch Barnett and Kurt Capewell and losing Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to a knee injury after only 11 minutes. Eddie Ieremia-Toeava also failed to return following a head knock later in the first half.<\/p>\n

Warriors coach Andrew Webster said Tuivasa-Sheck was able to walk around after full-time in a positive sign for the 32-year-old.<\/p>\n

Also encouraging in the Warriors\u2019 sixth win in succession was the display of Martin, who again proved a more than capable replacement for the injured Tanah Boyd and Luke Metcalf.<\/p>\n

They face Penrith in a top-of-the-table clash at CommBank Stadium next weekend.<\/p>\n

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\"ChrisChris Barrett<\/a> is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated May 23, 2026 \u2014 8:34pm,first published 7:44pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-689348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}