Score Dragons
The St George Illawarra Dragons community program Score Dragons, now in its 12th year, continues to grow in popularity and is enjoyed by all involved.
The NRL highlighted its significance to community by presenting the Dragons with the 2015 NRL Community Program of the Year.
Score Dragons secure the 'dub' at WIN
In 2019, the Score Dragons played a curtain-raiser match against the Score Raiders in an exciting development for the program. Score Dragons has been the inspiration for the Canberra Raiders and Cronulla Sharks to adopt similar programs.
In 2013, the Dragons met with The Disability Trust to develop an idea where we could include people with disabilities into a local rugby league competition in the Illawarra.
Initial meetings were related to developing ideas around a successful transition and the following issues were identified and met.
These included:
- What age competition would be the best fit?
- How would we modify the game to suite all parties?
- Potential barriers for inclusion?
- Support levels during the games?
Over a period of time, we worked through all potential issues and decided the best fit would be the Under-13s B competition.
The rules would remain the same as their regular league where it would be a six-tackle game played for two 15-minute halves each week.
The only modification we made was the games would be two handed touch and a staff member from The Disability Trust (Illawarra) and St George Illawarra Dragons would be on the field at all times to assist the players.
There is also a local junior rugby league referee who oversees all games.
All clubs were supportive of this initiative, and we commenced the games on May 31st, 2014, against Collegians.
In 2026, the Score Dragons and Score Sharks appeared on NRL Grand Final day.
St George Illawarra Dragons respect and honour the Traditional Custodians of the land and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples, where our games are played, our programs are conducted and in the communities we support.
