Two jerseys, two worlds at NRL Magic Round

Source: Radio New Zealand

First person: The year before the Warriors launched into the then Australian Rugby League, my wife was sitting exams. Coincidentally, in preparation for the Warriors’ launch, there was a lot of league on TV. And I had time on my hands to watch it.

Every time I turned on the TV, it always seemed the St George Dragons were playing. I liked them. I loved the ‘Red V’ jersey, arguably the greatest league jersey ever created.

Ever since, I have kept an eye on the Dragons. Not in that “they are the team I’d die for” kind of way. More in the C-list, wonder how they’re getting on way. In my case, the list includes the Dragons, Paris Saint-Germain, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, the Green Bay Packers and Pakistan cricket. It’s an oddly dispiriting list now I write it down.

So, when I was invited to the NRL Magic Round in Brisbane at the weekend, I packed two jerseys. One, the NZ Warriors; the other, the Dragons’ classic ‘Red V’.

It never occurred to me the two would generate such different reactions.

To understand why, you have to know a little of the two clubs’ histories. The Warriors, as New Zealanders know, is our franchise in the NRL. They play entertaining football, have had and still do have great players, they have pulled off some marvellous victories, they are having a good season, they have passionate crowds and a growing number of supporters. But they have a soft underbelly; in 31 years of trying, they have never won the league grand final.

The Dragons, on the other hand, have won the league (the last time was in 2010). They have a proud lineage. They are an amalgamation of the old Sydney St George Dragons and the more recent Illawarra Steelers; it’s an historic club, representing part of Sydney and the old heavy industry port of Wollongong. But, and this is a big but, they are currently terrible. In fact, so terrible are they as a team, they have been called (uncharitably) possibly the worst team in the modern NRL, ever.

The Dragons haven’t won a game this year. In fact, the last time they won was August 2025. The coach has been sacked. Enraged fans are demanding a meeting with management. Players have deserted the club. Headlines run the gamut from bad to worse to diabolical.

The Dragons were down to play the current leaders, the Panthers, at the annual Magic Round, the annual gathering of the tribes of league in one place for eight games. They weren’t expected to win. They didn’t disappoint.

The Warriors, on the other hand, had the loudest, most joyful and probably largest contingent of fans at the Round. The Warriors are a rising force, now second behind the Panthers on the table.

Because of that, wearing the Warriors’ colours is an experience. The estimated 8000 Warriors fans filled Suncorp with noise and exuberance. The blue and green jersey was everywhere. Even fans from other clubs would greet you with “Up the Wahs”, that three-syllable call which runs so easily off the tongue where “Up the Panthers” is clunky. Once, even a bloke sidled out of a takeaway bar to whisper “Up the Wahs”, as if it was a kind of Masonic greeting, then scuttled back in.

But this being Australia, the Warriors shadow still haunts. “You’ve never won a grand final,” pointed out Australian fans to silence over-exuberant Warriors fans. It lands. Maybe it’s Kiwi self-consciousness, or maybe it’s the Australian condescension, it still lands.

But there is a positive. It means the Warriors are like every Australian league fan’s “other” team. We are the team you support to beat that team you hate. There is no scar from some indignity decades ago that is still being nurtured.

Warriors fans are exuberant and greet the jersey exuberantly. Magic Rounds are festive and Warriors fans bring the vibe. Tribal in a good way. Gently subversive, too. One Warriors fan enthusiastically greeted every Samoan player at the Round by shouting “he’s my cousin, from the next village over”.

But pulling on the Red V for a day is quite different. Where Warriors jerseys are everywhere, Dragons ones are nowhere. By day three of the weekend, I had counted just 17 jerseys in Brisbane. “There’s your fan zone mate,” shouted someone when the only other visible Dragon in his Red V took his seat a few blocks over.

Mostly, Dragons fans were not in the mood to talk. (Or maybe they could just sniff an imposter.) We’d acknowledge each other with a nod of the head then walk on, eyes downcast. One fan touched the logo on his chest, trying to communicate the Dragons were in his heart, his blood forever. It looked more like the “Beam me up, Scotty” action in the old Star Trek.

There was one, fleeting, moment of exuberance. In a beer line, three Dragons fans recruited me to chant “Owen” over and over. Still baffled who Owen is.

But mostly it was the pity from other fans you felt. “Sorry mate,” they’d say quietly. “Not your year,” or just, “Good on you.” Once I was clapped from my seat when I went to the toilet, more in compassion than respect.

And this is the killer for Dragons fans, I’m sure. Things are rotten when even the Australians, the hard-nosed, toughest of sports fans, feel pity. This is what rock bottom looks like.

At one point, a few young lads on a train tried to get some banter going. They were shushed by their friends. It was too easy, too obvious, like kicking an old dog.

“You might find some friends in the stands,” said one Brisbanite, sounding doubtful. “In Queensland, everyone has a mum or dad from Sydney who moved here for the work. And we follow their teams. I like the Dragons.”

He was half-right. By game night there were a few hundred fans, scattered disconsolately through Suncorp Stadium.

“When do the Dragons actually play,” asked one Eels fan, suspiciously over-emphasising the “actually” I thought.

“Sunday night,” I replied.

“Oh well, there’s hope until then,” he said. “Hope dies last, you know.”

He was right. It did. The Dragons lost. Again.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand