St George Illawarra Dragons

Legendary Red V find a new home

 St. George Illawarra Dragons became the 5th NRL team to call ANZ Stadium home in 2008 with six home games and any home finals they qualify for to be played at the new home of rugby league. The Dragons also play four matches at ANZ Stadium as the ‘away team’.

The joint venture club is forged from a partnership between the legendary team with the Red V and the seemingly endless talent rolling out of the Illawarra region. The Dragons have a remarkable legacy of 15 premierships, second only to South Sydney, 11 of those Premierships were back to back from 1956 – 66 in a run all sporting teams around the world look at with envy and awe.

The club has an abundance of legendary names associated with the game, including three Immortals in Reg Gasnier, John Raper and Graeme Langlands. Fellow Dragons Frank Burge and Norm Provan were named alongside the Immortals in the Team of the Century.

The Dragons have had an affinity with ANZ Stadium since its opening day. St. George Illawarra played Parramatta in the feature game of a double header to open the Stadium on March 6 1999. That day 104,583 fans turned out to welcome rugby league to its new home.

The Dragons played in front of a bigger crowd that same year when a world record crowd for rugby league of 107,999 turned out to see St. George Illawarra play in the first Grand final venue at the venue. Alas for the Dragons faithful, their team went down to Melbourne 20-18 in a Grand Final still spoken about today.

St.George Illawarra consistently ranks in the top teams when it comes to supporters, jersey and merchandise sales and ANZ Stadium gives the fans and corporate partners the world class venue they deserve.

Footy fans also get the bonus of two games at every NRL fixture this year and the chance to see the Dragons stars of the future with the national under 20s competition, the Toyota cup, played before every game.