St George Illawarra coach Nathan Brown said the sensational send-off of his prop Jason Ryles "ruined" a good game and it appeared that way on the scoreboard as Melbourne romped to a 26-0 victory in their NRL clash tonight.
As well as Ryles, three other players were sin-binned after a wild melee as the ill-feeling between the two clubs which dates back to their 1999 grand final continued.
Before the send-off in the 25th minute the Storm were up 4-0 but against 12 men lifted that score to 10-0 by halftime and their try tally to five by the final whistle.
Ryles was marched by referee Gavin Badger 25 minutes into the match when he lashed out and kicked the legs of opposing forward Jeff Lima as the teams packed a scrum.
It may have been retaliation as replays showed Lima appeared to tread on Ryles.
"The referee ruined what was going to be a good tough game of football," Brown said.
"You can probably call it a hasty decision.
"I don't think anyone in the rugby league world thought that warranted a send-off, that was just two frontrowers having a bit of pitter-patter."
The incident could have escaped Badger's attention, or not resulted in a send-off if it hadn't come just two minutes after the all-in brawl, which stopped the match for several minutes.
Badger sent Storm fullback Billy Slater to the sin-bin, along with his teammate Adam Blair and Dragons five-eighth Jamie Soward for their contributions and warned the captains that a send-off was the next step.
The fighting started after a tackle by Cooper Cronk on Soward, who the Storm players verbally targeted leading up to the match.
They believed Soward showed their team a lack of respect by his exuberant celebrations when the Dragons beat the Storm, who were missing their nine Origin players, back in round 10.
Brown said he hoped the match review committee would agree that Ryles had been penalised enough.
"I think he's served his penalty."
Storm coach Craig Bellamy also said he would be disappointed if any further action was taken against any of the players, including the Dragons.
He praised the visitors for their efforts.
"They played real strong, they were a credit to their club to play like that with only 12 men but I thought our guys were real good," Bellamy said.
Storm centre Israel Folau opened the scoring in the eighth minute as he showed off his spectacular aerial skills and strength.
The young centre out-leapt Dragons winger Jason Nightingale and as he crashed back down, managed to stretch out his arm and plant the ball over the line.
Lima extended the lead three minutes before halftime and then Melbourne added a further three tries in the second half, which continued in a spiteful manner in the cold and wet conditions.
Forward Jeremy Smith touched down in the 57th minute and then took offence to a late hit by Dragons prop Justin Poore, with Smith throwing the ball at his opponent with Badger again trying to keep a lid on the simmering tensions.
Winger Steve Turner collected the points after a terrific team try while veteran Matt Geyer also got his share of the spoils to cap off an eventful evening.
