Ticks Are So Bad They're Climbing Up The Side of Matt's House
The Killer, The Menace, The GOAT: Players Who've Played For The Dragons And The Sharks
A few weeks back, former Western Suburbs and St George coach, educator, author, journalist and noted polemicist, Roy Masters was interviewed by ABC Radio as part of a segment about rugby league's greatest inter-club rivalries.
While Masters coached the Dragons in the 1980s when the club was still part of sometimes premiership defining rivalries in Sydney, his interviewers were only interested in one thing: Wests and Manly, 'fibros' and 'silvertails' and the fierce geographical and class-based polemic Masters did more than anybody to foment in the late 1970s.
When asked about the local rivalry between St George and Cronulla, there was a mere passing reference to it being 'not the same sort of thing' and that, at worst, a few people at St George regarded Cronulla as something of a retirement village for Dragons old boys.
It's not much to get the protagonists' blood flowing when crossing the Georges River, but maybe this is what it is: a gentlemanly rivalry. There isn't anything significant in terms of culture or class, neither side has much of a chip on its shoulder and there's thankfully nothing as juvenile as a 'book of feuds'.
There isn't a moment or game that lingers in the collective consciousness. The two clubs have only had one truly high-stakes encounter in over 50 years, the 1999 preliminary final which has rather faded given the drama of what happened the following weekend.
Nor have any of the players who've switched allegiances caused much of a stir, even though there've been some very good ones.
So, as we prepare for another instalment of our gentlemanly rivalry, with both clubs currently fielding alumni of their opponents and with the Dragons increasingly becoming a haven for Cronulla rejects, here's a selection of the best who've represented both since 1967.
1. Josh DuganWas Dugan more trouble than he was worth? Raiders and Sharks fans would probably say yes, and with good reason given he was sacked by both clubs as part of a bizarre string of off-field incidents, often involving Blake Ferguson.
But for all that, Dugan was a quality player. He had five good seasons for the Dragons during which he played 11 Origins and 12 Tests. Whatever else happens, he'll always have that ankle tap – the desperate lunge to bring down England's Kallum Watkins that might've saved the 2017 World Cup Final for the Kangaroos.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
2. Colin BestThe Engadine Dragons junior played in the early days of a golden age for wingers, with wide men increasingly dominating highlights packages and becoming key yardage players, and Best was perhaps underappreciated compared to many of his peers.
He had a very good career, though, amassing over 300 games and nearly 150 tries between the NRL and Super League, winning Dally-M winger of the year honours in 2008 with the Raiders, and representing City in 2001. He started and finished his career with the Sharks and had two good seasons with the Dragons where he scored freely playing outside Mark Gasnier in 2005 and '06.
3. Josh MorrisNeither club saw the best of J-Moz, with his peak years and almost his entire representative career played during his time up the road at the Bulldogs.
Still, it was a bit weird seeing Morris in a Cronulla shirt, albeit briefly, given the history of his family with the Dragons. And what a rugby league family they are. Between Steve, Brett and Josh, they boast 867 top-flight games, 466 tries, 32 Origins and 25 tests. Hopefully there's another generation to come.
4. Ken MaddisonPinching powerful centre/back-rower Ken Maddison from the Dragons in 1972 was a smart bit of business by the Sharks. After debuting in 1965, Maddison played in the Dragons' 1966 grand final victory and by the early '70s was poised to go to the next level.
And he duly did that at the Sharks, winning the Rothmans Medal and playing in the grand final in 1973, before starring in the Kangaroos' Ashes victory the same year and scoring a double in the decisive third test at Warrington.
5. Nick ZistiAfter leaving Souths for St George in 1994, Zisti had quite a purple patch. In 1996, he played a starring role in St George's unlikely run though the 1996 finals series and scored the Dragons' only try in their grand final defeat to Manly.
The following year he joined the start-up Hunter Mariners, scored twice in their World Club Championship Final defeat to Brisbane and set all the club's point-scoring records, which he'll hold forever. He then spent a season with Cronulla in 1998 and scored a try in his final NRL game against, you guessed it, St George.
But wait, there's more. Shortly after joining Super League's Bradford Bulls in 1999, Zisti was poached by the Italian rugby union team and unexpectedly played in the '99 World Cup, including the unenviable task of marking a rampaging Jonah Lomu in the Azzurri's 101-3 loss to the All Blacks. The moral of the story: if union can poach Nick Zisti, they could poach almost anybody.
6. Steve RogersThe late Steve Rogers was arguably the greatest player in Cronulla's history, first as a dashing centre in the 1970s, then as a crafty lock and playmaker in the 1980s. As the immortal Bob Fulton said, "Sludge was one of a very rare breed in the game – the player who could do everything. I rate him the most naturally gifted player I played with or against."
Rogers had reportedly long harboured an ambition to play for the Dragons, which he did in 1983 and '84, playing finals both years but falling short of that elusive premiership.
Rogers briefly returned to Cronulla in 1985 before a terrible broken jaw ended his career. Sludge's son Mat told the story of that incident and his own life and career in a poignant interview with ABC Radio late last year.
7. Perry HaddockThe pint-sized halfback from Erina and later inventor of Oztag joined Cronulla in 1981 during a mostly lean period for the Sharks, before being tempted across the river to St George where he partnered Rogers during the Dragons' finals run in 1984, and then guided the Dragons to the minor premiership and a grand final appearance in '85.
Haddock later completed the triad, joining Illawarra for two seasons in the late '80s. Did anybody else play for all three clubs before the merger?
8. Monty PorterPorter's a legend of both clubs. He played in six winning grand finals for the Dragons between 1958 and '64, before becoming Cronulla's inaugural captain in 1967.
He later became Cronulla's club secretary, chairman of selectors and president, with the best and fairest award, a grandstand at Shark Park and the Monty Porter Memorial Cup named in his honour.
9. Michael 'the Menace' EnnisBefore he was a supremely annoying pundit, Ennis was a supremely annoying player, and he ended up representing five different clubs over 14 years in the top grade. I wonder if those things are connected.
His only season with the Dragons was the great missed opportunity of 2005, but he went one better with the Sharks in 2016, with 'the Menace' and Jimmy Maloney the final pieces in solving Cronulla's premiership puzzle and finally turning that damn porch light off.
10. Matt PriorThe only player to win premierships with both clubs, Prior rarely got the credit he deserved, with the likes of Mick Weyman, Paul Gallen and Andrew Fifita often getting all of it. I'd have taken Prior over any of them and couldn't have been happier for him in 2016, or when he finally got the call for Origin in 2018.
11. Tyson FrizellThe Dragons got one back when they pinched a young Tyson Frizell from the Sharks in 2013, though Frizell was a Corrimal junior and his Welsh heritage indicates he clearly belonged at the Dragons.
Whatever, the Red V seemed to agree with Frizell, as he recorded 14 Tests for Australia and 14 Origins for NSW during his time at the Dragons.
12. Beau ScottScott was originally signed by the Dragons out of the Macarthur region, before joining the Sharks and making his NRL debut as a centre in 2005. But he eventually saw the light and returned to the Dragons in 2007, where he switched to the back row, won a premiership, gained selection for NSW and became a much-beloved figure in Queensland. Well played, Beau.
13. Jeremy SmithJeremy Smith is arguably the most influential signing in St George Illawarra's history. Before his arrival, the Dragons had size, skill and athleticism in the forwards, but lacked the professionalism and ruthless streak of Smith that was so prominent in their 2010 grand final victory.
He was good wherever he went, including two seasons at Cronulla in 2011 and '12, in Melbourne's 2007 grand final team and for New Zealand with whom he won the 2008 World Cup.
Bench: Jason Stevens, Jeremy 'the GOAT' Latimore, Lance Thompson and Jack BirdJason Stevens was a bit weird, but he deserves a jumper, as does the wonderful Lance Thompson who just edged Nathan Long for a spot on the bench. Jack Bird's never recovered the form he showed in the premiership-winning Sharks team and has now managed to alienate pretty much everybody.
Which brings us to Jeremy Latimore, the bench prop's bench prop and apparently the GOAT, at something. Precisely what remains unclear, but it appears to be some combination of Latimore's self-deprecating nature and affable eccentricity, and possibly something to do with Cameron Smith. Let's just leave it there – he's the GOAT.
Jack Bird. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
Coach: Ken 'Killer' KearneyWhile master coach Jack Gibson took charge of both clubs and led St George to a grand final in 1971, it has to be 'Killer' Kearney. As Alan Whiticker and Glen Hudson wrote, "St George turned their mastery of limited tackle football into an art form under Kearney". The results were five premierships as a player, four of them as captain-coach, plus a sixth as coach of the Dragons.
Kearney was also captain-coach of the Kangaroos during his playing days, before stints as coach of Parramatta and Wests led him to Cronulla where he served as their inaugural coach in 1967 and continued in the role until 1969, albeit with little success at the fledgling club/retirement village. How the tables have turned.
Starry Starry Night: Lions, Dippers And Dragons Twinkle In The Night Sky
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PDN FILE PHOTOThis image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, or M101, in the constellation of Ursa Major, combines data from four of NASA's space telescopes. The view shows that both young and old stars are evenly distributed along M101's tightly wound spiral arms.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/STScI/CXCGreetings! You'll want to keep an eye on the western sky this week, because Venus will make its closest approach to Mars on Saturday. You've probably noticed that they're both getting closer to the western horizon and by August Venus will disappear from your early evening sky.
Mercury is on the other side of the sun right now and not visible at all, but Jupiter and Saturn are visible in the early morning sky. You'll need to get up around 5 a.M. To find them, but they're easy to see. Jupiter is four fist-widths above due east and slightly to the left and to find Saturn, just look straight overhead and measure two fist-widths down toward the southern horizon. That bright 'star' is Saturn.
Returning to our evening sky, find Mars and Venus again. The planets travel the path that traces through the zodiac constellations and they're now above Cancer the Crab and below Leo the Lion. Although Cancer is one of the dimmest constellations, Leo is easy to find.
That bright star that's just above Mars to the left is Regulus, the Lion's heart. If you look to the right of Regulus, you should see a backward question mark of stars that point to the right. That's the Lion's head. The Lion is pointed down toward the horizon and two and a half fist-widths above Regulus you'll find Denebola, the Lion's tail star.
We'll have a waxing moon in our evening sky all week so let's go stargazing for some famous constellations. A constellation that's made of bright stars and is very famous is in our northern sky one hour after sunset. It is, of course, the Big Dipper, more accurately called Ursa Major the Great Bear. If you use the end stars of the Big Dipper's bowl to point down toward the horizon, you'll run right over a fairly bright star. That's a very famous star, though it may not be where you remember it in the sky, if you came to Guam from the mainland U.S. That's Polaris the North Star and it's part of an equally famous constellation that's not easy to see in Guam's skies at all.
Polaris is the end star of the handle of that other familiar constellation, the Little Dipper. Of course, like its bigger cousin, the Little Dipper is only part of the constellation Ursa Minor the Little Bear. Polaris is 13 degrees above our northern horizon because we're 13 degrees north of the equator and that means that it's very hard or impossible to see the Little Dipper from Guam for most of the year. For at least half the year, the Little Dipper's bowl is below the northern horizon and for most of the rest of the time; the Little Dipper is parallel to the ground, making it difficult to see. But in June, the Little Dipper stands virtually upright above Polaris and you can see its faint stars if the sky is dark to the north.
Measure three fist-widths to the right of the Little Dipper's bowl, and you just may be able to see four dim stars that make a kite shape. That's the head of Draco the Dragon. The Dragon's body loops down toward the horizon from the head and then arches back up over the Little Dipper to end between the Big and Little Dipper's bowls.
Lions, Dippers and Dragons. It's a wonderful summer sky. Enjoy!
Pam Eastlick was the coordinator for the former University of Guam planetarium since the early 1990s. She has been writing this weekly astronomy column since 2003. Send any questions or comments to life@guampdn.Com and we will forward them to her. Read the full column at guampdn.Com.
Imagine Dragons More Biblically
Most times, you hear the dragon boats before you see them.
Jumanji-style drum beats fill the air, pounding out a steady rhythm as a 20-strong crew paddles in sync on long, sleek boats in a bid to outrace one another. But the intensity of these competitions aren't the only eye-catching feature during the Dragon Boat Festival, which takes place on the fifth day of the fifth month in the lunar calendar and falls on June 22 this year.
The boats' visually arresting designs also play a part in enticing crowds of curious onlookers. Every boat bears a fierce-looking dragon head on its bow, with two horns, piercing eyes, and a wide-open mouth filled with sharp teeth.
Most Chinese Christians do not see any issue with observing or participating in the Dragon Boat Festival, whether through the boat races or in eating savory, sticky rice dumplings known as zongzi (粽子). However, they may regard dragons negatively because of how these fabled creatures are depicted in Scripture.
It's important to dispel misconceptions about these mythical beings in Chinese culture and develop a fuller understanding of what dragons in the Bible refer to, the biblical scholars CT interviewed say.
Chinese people often have furniture or jewelry bearing images of dragons, as they symbolize prosperity, luck, blessing, and wisdom in Chinese culture. The fantastical beasts are also emblems of imperial power: Chinese emperors were described as "the dragon" and often wore a robe emblazoned with a dragon to represent their "divine and omnipotent rule."
But some pastors in Malaysia and Hong Kong, as well as at Chinese churches in the US, tell believers to destroy these items because they are evil, says K. K. Yeo, a New Testament professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, who was born and raised in Borneo, Malaysia. Christians whose Chinese names contain the character long (龙) for dragon may even be encouraged to change them.
"Assuming that the Revelation 12 dragon is Western and reading the Western meaning of 'dragons' into the Chinese dragon is a major flaw in biblical interpretation," Yeo said. "This is a misunderstanding, and therefore a simplistic way of condemning Chinese culture flat out."
WordplayIn the Chinese Union Version (CUV) of the Bible, the character long (龙) for the word dragon appears 138 times. In the Old Testament, it is typically found in transliterations of biblical names such as Absalom (押沙龙), says Chee-Chiew Lee from the School of Theology (Chinese) at Singapore Bible College.
The character is mostly used to represent dragon in the Book of Revelation. In the CUV, it appears in verses that mention the red dragon (12:3), the beast with two horns that speaks like a dragon (13:11), and when an angel catches the dragon—also described as an ancient serpent or a devil—and binds him for a thousand years (20:2).
Only one Bible translation, the Worldwide Chinese Version, uses the Mandarin characters for the phrase evil snake (魔蛇) instead of dragon in Revelation, Lee said.
To accurately grasp what Scripture refers to when speaking of dragons, we have to recognize that the Bible was situated in ancient Near East culture, the biblical scholars interviewed by CT emphasized.
In such a polytheistic environment, a god often battles with—and defeats—an opponent that is usually portrayed as a serpent. A Babylonian myth, for example, records the god Marduk fighting with the serpentine sea goddess Tiamat, while a Canaanite Ugaritic tale shows the god Baal at loggerheads with Lotan, a seven-headed sea monster whose name means "coiled."
In the King James Version, the Hebrew word tannîn is translated as dragon in verses like Jeremiah 51:34 and Nehemiah 2:13. The Hebrew word livyāṯān appears in the Greek Septuagint as either ophis or drakon, and the latter word may be one reason why these ancient beasts became known as "dragons" in English, says Lee.
"The problem when translating [these words] as 'dragon' is that you think of the medieval dragon, not the Jewish serpent," Lee said. "The medieval dragon has wings. In the Hebrew tradition, it has no wings and no feet. It's more like a snake than a lizard. It doesn't have fire spewing from its mouth."
Readers of Chinese versions of Scripture may also see dragons through a cultural lens.
In Chinese mythology, dragons have scaly, slinky bodies and are wingless, although male dragons have the ability to fly to the heavens and cause rain to occur. (Female dragons oversee earthly water bodies.) Dragons exist in many different realms—from the sky to the sea and the underworld—and exert control over them.
Protestant translators wanted Chinese believers to leave the potentially idolatrous aspect of culture behind, and so connected long to negative imagery in the CUV, which was published in 1919. But an accurate reading of long in Scripture requires understanding that there are two senses in translation, Lee says.
The first involves a translation of language: In English and Chinese Bibles, the words dragon and long, respectively, are different symbols and represent different mythic animals. The second refers to a translation of culture, wherein a symbol that denotes something in one culture need not be totally equivalent in another culture.
For example, said Lee, "If, in the Chinese culture, receiving a gift means you need to open it after your giver leaves, it doesn't translate that all cultures must do the same."
For believers, this all means that the biblical symbol of the snake or serpent as evil does not imply that dragons in Chinese culture are evil.
"The Chinese understanding of 'dragon' is different from the ancient Near Eastern [understanding], which is used in the Bible. These are two civilizations that are not the same," Yeo said. Instead, he suggests understanding long as er long (恶龙), or "evil dragon," to bring out a clearer understanding of the beast in Revelation.
Fallacious assumptionsOne danger in always reading long as a representation of evil can occur when Chinese Christians reject their culture in its entirety, Asian biblical scholars say.
"Without learning the hermeneutics of metaphors and symbols, people tend to equate symbols with reality or ontology rather than [seeing] symbols as cultural expressions," Lee explains. "Symbols are dependent on their culture, and their use in that culture is rather fixed."
In her Mandarin-language seminary courses, Lee uses examples of common cultural customs to demonstrate how symbols are imbued with meaning from their particular cultures. The giving of red packets during the Lunar New Year signifies a festive season in Chinese culture, but when it comes to other local celebrations like Hari Raya Puasa (what Eid al-Fitr is known as in Singapore), people exchange green packets, not red, because the color green symbolizes "paradise, eternity, and wisdom" in Islam.
In China, such misconceptions about Scripture and culture were more pervasive in the 1980s and '90s, says Zhang San, a pastor in Shanghai (he is using a pseudonym for security reasons). Christians in China refrained from wearing clothes with dragon imagery and did not participate in dragon boat festivals. Many also refused to sing a popular patriotic song, "Descendants of the Dragon," because they felt that believers were not descendants of Satan, who is referred to as a dragon in Revelation 20:2.
This is no longer an issue for churches in China today because of improvements in biblical literacy, says Zhang. Besides understanding that tannîn is used to describe various sea creatures like whales, crocodiles, and serpents, churches in the country have also moved from more literal to more allegorical expositions of Revelation.
Another danger in understanding long as evil may arise when this interpretation results in a "very distorted sense of eschatology," said Yeo. Upon rejecting Chinese culture by deeming it evil and thinking that it will be ultimately destroyed, some might think that Western culture is better, whether consciously or subconsciously, Yeo says.
This perception of the West's superiority is problematic to Yeo: "All cultures have their good points. All are also fallen. Once you have a comparative superior-inferior culture, you are going to have ethnocentrism, racism, nationalism, and a colonial mentality."
Salvific connectionsThese misconceptions may persist in some parts of Asia. But Chinese Christians don't see any conflict with their faith when participating in the Dragon Boat Festival, because the event has cultural and historical roots rather than religious ones, Yeo says.
At the same time, Christians do not have a reputation for evangelizing during the Dragon Boat Festival. Zhang, the Shanghai pastor, attributes this lack of engagement among Christians in China to the country's rapid urbanization and strong atheistic education, which has "removed and cleaned the existence of civil religion."
"Compared to urbanized China, the Chinese diaspora in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong has a more 'thick' culture of superstition and religion" to differentiate them from other segments of society, said Zhang.
Churches also tend to be more active during another event in the lunar calendar, the Hungry Ghost Festival, because of its Buddhist and Taoist roots and because it often engenders fear of evil spirits and questions around mortality, Yeo says.
Nevertheless, Chinese Christians can explore using the origin story for the Dragon Boat Festival as an opening for the gospel.
While some say this tradition arose because of superstitious villagers in China who worshiped a dragon god and held dragon boat races to fend off misfortune and seek divine blessing, most Chinese people attribute the event's origins to royal advisor Qu Yuan's heroic patriotism.
Qu Yuan was a poet and political figure in the third-century state of Chu, or ancient China. During the period of the Warring States, Qu Yuan warned his king that neighboring state Qiu was a threat to Chu. The king failed to heed his advice and banished him instead. Upon seeing his homeland descend into turmoil, a despairing Qu Yuan took his own life by drowning in the Mi Luo River.
One version of this account says that farmers took dragon boats out on the water to save Qu Yuan's life, while another says that rice dumplings were thrown into the river to feed fish and a river dragon, thereby preventing his body from being consumed.
Many Chinese people regard Qu Yuan as a beloved figure who transcends "the simple story of his self-sacrifice, coming to represent the very embodiment of patriotism." Chinese believers, however, can take Qu Yuan's story a step further by teasing out its connections with Christian themes.
"The biblical narrative provides us with a larger, more persuasive narrative on why a heroic event is not simply about Chinese history but has Christian faith motifs connected with it," Yeo said. "In the Christian sense, he is like a prophetic figure standing for justice and people's rights."
Believers can use Qu Yuan's heroism as a means of pointing toward the Christian idea of martyrdom, which talks of dying for God in pursuit of justice, love, and fidelity, Yeo added. Stories like these can also raise valuable questions about the relationship between Chinese history and Christian faith: "That's the kind of work the church should do, linking the two rather than a dualistic, binary thinking."
When reading and sharing about long in Scripture, Chinese Christians can do this well by deepening their understanding of cultural anthropology.
Dragons in Chinese culture convey a desire for security, peace, blessing, joy, and power, and these can be a helpful starting point for believers to share about a yearning for a greater and more enduring hope, Yeo says.
"It all has to do with the biblical understanding of salvation. Find those themes—salvation of God and Christ for humanity—and how the source—God and his Word—can bring about good news."
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