![St George Illawarra were all smiles after winning the Anzac Day clash with the Roosters last year. Picture by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
St George Illawarra were all smiles after winning the Anzac Day clash with the Roosters last year. Picture by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ZQVibJ7UkRpJMEgscSkw6d/fb8bea0e-b3af-4ebe-900d-f4276ca80354.jpg/r0_0_5472_3441_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Lost in all the bar room chatter about who replaces Anthony Griffin, or Sam Walker being dropped by the Roosters, is an extraordinary stat attack.
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Since Wayne Bennett left, the Dragons have won just five of their past 21 games against the Chooks.
Yet in that same period since 2012, St George Illawarra's Anzac Day record is 5-5 head-to-head.
So they're 0-11 in other contests, struggling to land a glove on the Roosters, a dominant force in recent times while the Dragons chop from one direction to another, yet still manage to turn up for the biggest regular-season game of the year.
For all the second-half fade-outs, sending one hooker out for kick-off after naming another and throwing the ball to forward Josh Kerr to run it straight with the game on the line and seconds on the clock, expect the Dragons to fire on Tuesday.
Anzac Day, with the hours of commemoration and reflection for those serving and fallen before heading to the footy, always produces a special atmosphere.
And for desperate Dragons fans, often a memorable result in a time of need. But reflect on last year, where they held on to win 14-12 after scoring all their points and keeping the Roosters scoreless in the first half.
By July, they met again and St George Illawarra folded, losing 54-26 after leading 14-12 at the break, as Joey Manu and James Tedesco ran riot.
Before that game the Dragons were ninth and the Roosters 10th, but it helped the Tricolours make the finals, bounced out by the Rabbitohs in the first week, while more pressure was heaped on Griffin for missing out.
And Kerr this week has a point about mental health and the situation Griffin finds himself in.
"He is going through a bit of a rough start to the year with personal issues as well," Kerr said.
"Having this news dropped on him, he is coming in every day willing to work and doing the exact same job every day.
"No one should be going through what he is going through at the moment.
"He has handled himself really well, I don't know if I could do that. Be slandered by the media then come in and try to do a great job."
But the club has brought this on, based on Griffin's results and team culture.
The media coverage has been about the Dragons' position and coaching targets, rather than any blunt campaign trying to drive Griffin out.
Anzac Day is made for big moments, Josh Dugan levelling the scores as makeshift goalkicker for the injured Gareth Widdop, only for Mitchell Pearce to kick the winning field goal in extra-time in 2017 among them.
The Dragons might well win on Tuesday, but with recent history as a guide, it has little lasting impact on improving their finals fortunes.
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