St George Illawarra and the Cronulla Sharks might be bitter rivals, but last weekend they had to share the same dressing room at Kogarah's Jubilee Oval - albeit with a good clean between games.
The outcome was the same for both local NRL teams with the Dragons going down 32-28 to Penrith and the Sharks 12-10 to Melbourne.
The good news was they really competed and scored points. The bad news was they failed to learn from their mistakes which cost them.
The Dragons were looking to avoid their worst start to a season in seven years but its now on hold as the NRL took the unprecedented step of suspending the season due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
NRL officials were determined to keep the competition going given the financial fallout of postponing games, however the rapidly shifting nature of the pandemic has forced the NRL's hand.
It is understood medical authorities updated their advice, which meant the Commission had to put its competition on hold.
Club CEOs were informed of the decision on Monday evening, with CEO Todd Greenberg and ARLC chairman Peter V'landys announcing the halt shortly afterwards.
"Our pandemic and biosecurity experts said due to the outbreak it is no longer safe for our players to play," V'landys said.
"We are going to look at all the options"
It's old news now but it was the same result as last week for the Dragons at an empty Netstrata Jubilee Stadium on Friday night as they let a ten-point lead slip through their fingers as they failed to take their chances.
In losing games of football they are in a position to win they are making it hard for themselves, coach Paul McGregor said.
"We're scoring 28 points. You should win. But defensively you shouldn't let in 32."
Off contract second-rower, Tyson Frizell was critical of the team's attention to detail and spoke about effort- but effort's not going to get them two points.
McGregor said captain Cameron McInnes was going to make an early return from a knee injury and the suspended Tariq Sims would have been available-but now everything is up in the air.
It was a good result for the team with fullback Matt Dufty, in his 50th game scoring a double in his comeback from a fractured cheekbone.
"There were positives there, but I think there were a lot more negatives that I'm going to have to go back to training and work on," Dufty said after the game.
Due to the coronavirus lockouts, there was no crowd on hand to watch the game firsthand, but the Dragons still had some home support, with a few die-hard fans forlornly waving their flags and cheering loudly from outside the northern gates-at least they tried.
