The poor Dragons haven't won a game in 2026.
The club that won 11 straight premierships in its history is now left to take crumbs of comfort from their players not giving in and playing with spirit against the Penrith Panthers.
How the mighty have fallen!
The St George Illawarra Dragons aren't just struggling. They are exposing something that has been quietly happening to rugby league for years.
Watch them closely and you'll often see a team waiting for structure instead of playing football.
Players drift into shape. Halves appear hesitant. Attack looks rehearsed rather than instinctive. There are sets where you can almost see players mentally ticking boxes instead of reacting to what is actually unfolding in front of them.
And before anybody jumps straight to blaming one coach, one halfback or one recruitment manager, this issue is far bigger than the Dragons.
The Dragons are simply the latest symptom of a much deeper problem in the modern game.
Rugby league has for years been obsessed with systems, physicality and compliance - often at the expense of creativity, instinct and football intelligence.
Somewhere along the way, we started producing athletes before footballers.
That might sound harsh, but look around the NRL and you can still see this despite the open nature of the sport at present.
How many teams genuinely play what they see every time they can?
How many halves are truly controlling games with vision and feel rather than simply organising shapes and completing prescribed movements?
Too often, players look terrified to leave the script.
The irony is that modern rugby league actually gives players more space than ever before.
Back in the Jack Gibson era - when many of today's attacking systems were first heavily influenced by American Football concepts - defenders only retreated five metres. The game was tighter, slower and more compressed. Coaches needed structure because space was at a premium.
Now defenders retreat ten metres and athletes are fitter than ever, yet many teams attack as though they are still trapped in a phone box.
That's why I get frustrated when I hear constant criticism that halves “need to run more”.
No. Halves need to recognise space better and run when appropriate as part of that overall picture.
There's a massive difference.
The best playmakers in rugby league history weren't great because they ran constantly. They were great because they manipulated defenders, understood momentum and made decisions instinctively under pressure.
A good halfback makes everyone else look dangerous.
But modern development systems still often coach that instinct out of players before they even reach first grade.
Junior football has become heavily focused on physical development. Bigger bodies. Faster sprint times. Stronger gym numbers. More wrestling. More conditioning.
And don't get me started on the rules in age groups under 13 where there has to be a ‘first receiver' on every play.
Basic football skills and decision-making can become secondary when you've got such rule constraints on juniors leading to a focus on building bodies when they arrive in their teens.
I've seen junior systems produce enormous athletes who can squat, bench press and deadlift like professionals - yet struggle with simple passing, vision or game management.
And those players eventually become NRL footballers.
That's why so many attacks now look robotic.
The Dragons are currently wearing the criticism for it, but they are far from alone.
Too many teams attack in rigid patterns regardless of what the defence is presenting. Too many players are taught where to stand rather than how to think. Too many halves are carrying the burden of systems instead of being empowered to control games naturally.
You can actually see the hesitation.
A defender jams in, but the pass doesn't come because the play says otherwise.
Space opens up on the short side, but the team continues sweeping long because the structure demands it.
A forward gets quick play-the-ball momentum, but instead of reacting instinctively, the attack resets into formation.
Football becomes mechanical.
The scary part is that many young players now grow up believing this is what elite rugby league is supposed to look like.
It isn't.
The best teams still understand that simplicity and instinct beat complexity when pressure hits.
Look at Penrith over the last several years.
Yes, they are highly structured. But they are not robotic.
There's a difference.
Their players understand spacing, timing and support play so deeply that the game appears natural. They repeat core skills relentlessly. They trust their football intelligence. They adapt in real time.
That's not over-coaching.
That's clarity.
The Dragons, by contrast, have looked like a side caught between structure and uncertainty. Players don't appear to trust themselves. Confidence disappears quickly because confidence in rugby league often comes from clarity and freedom.
When teams become overly dependent on systems, everything starts falling apart the moment momentum swings against them.
And rugby league is a sport of momentum and emotion.
You cannot script chaos.
That's why some of the best football you'll ever see happens when structure breaks down entirely. Broken-field play. Fatigued defences. Off-the-cuff support play. Players reacting instinctively.
The greats saw football before they saw systems.
Unfortunately, much of the modern game now develops players the other way around.
Young footballers are increasingly taught to execute first and think second.
That's dangerous for the future of the sport.
Because eventually you end up with a competition full of physically magnificent athletes all running the same shapes, carrying out the same patterns and lacking the instinct to truly manipulate a game.
The Dragons didn't create this problem.
They're simply shining a spotlight on it.
And unless rugby league starts prioritising football intelligence, creativity and decision-making again — particularly at junior level — we're going to keep seeing more teams that look organised on paper but completely lost once the game starts asking difficult questions.
Lee Addison is a former club coach at Sea Eagles and Panthers and the founder of rugbyleaguecoach.com.au. He is a Coach Mentor and his programmes for coaches and clubs can be found HERE.
