Just for a moment, Wendell Sailor dared to dream. Sailor, who turns 35 on Thursday and is off contract at the end of the year, was quizzed again on his playing future after the Dragons' thumping of Manly at WIN Stadium yesterday.
The dual international winger, who won three league titles under coach Wayne Bennett at the Broncos, admitted the idea of retiring with a premiership was appealing.
"I can't write my own fairytales, but I'd love a premiership," Sailor said. "I hope that's not being too greedy."
Brett Stewart a no-show among greats Full coverage of The St George Illawarra DragonsAs he mulls over the prospect of playing on for another season, the victory over the reigning premiers means the Dragons will move to 30 competition points after next weekend's bye, guaranteeing them a place in the NRL finals.
Sailor scored two tries yesterday, to take his total to 11 for the season, four behind the NRL's leading try scorer Brett Morris, who also finished with a double in the 30-point hammering of the Sea Eagles.
The Wollongong crowd favourite admitted the Dragons had the right depth and mix of players to secure the club's first title since St George and Illawarra merged a decade ago.
"I can see the ingredients," Sailor said. "I think defence wins premierships and the premierships I was involved in, as much as you've had great attackers, defence was the cornerstone of winning those premierships.
"I think you need depth to win grand finals and finals series and everyone (at the Dragons) is doing their job."
The Dragons are now $3.75 title favourites, ahead of the Bulldogs ($4.50) and Melbourne ($6.50).
However, the man behind the Dragons surge to the top of the ladder would not buy into talk of premiership success.
"We haven't talked about any of that stuff, it just hasn't been a part of what we're trying to achieve here," Bennett said.
"If you'd said to me at the start of the year, 'would I have known we would have been in this position at this point of the year', I would have said, 'no'. I just came here with an open mind."
Bennett said the race for the finals was now between the top nine teams, including Manly (ninth).
However, he believed South Sydney still had a sniff of the play-offs, but they must overpower Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night to keep their hopes alive.
Bennett said it was too early to determine who the genuine contenders were, even after yesterday impressive performance without a cast of stars on State of Origin duty or out injured.
"It's too early yet to determine who could win comps - the premiers haven't arrived yet," Bennett said. "But somewhere in the next month, six weeks it will start to sort itself out a little bit.
"They're all capable, all those top teams are certainly capable. It's all got to come together at the right time."
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