Roosters 10 Dragons 0

ANTHONY MINICHIELLO gripped the ball deep in his own half in the fourth minute and tore back into the teeth of the Dragons defence: his first touch at this level in 11 weeks.

If the Roosters fullback was thinking about the bulging disc in his neck, the rest of the stadium certainly was when he was picked up, dumped on his head and flung backwards in the tackle.

"I saw his face when he got up and there were a few stars," Roosters coach Brad Fittler said afterwards. "And he had a smile on his face."

"Might as well go hard from the start," a relieved Minichiello chuckled in the rooms. "You have to. It did get a good work out. My ears were ringing but the neck felt sweet."

Minichiello's first touch in more than two months might have provided him with untold reserves of confidence, but it was the try in the 45th minute that provided the first points of an absorbing match.

The whisper has been that Minichiello - not the Roosters - has been ultra-cautious in making this comeback. With back and neck injuries cruelling most of the last three seasons, he's every right to feel jumpy.

"It's been tough the last three years, mate," he said. "I keep getting back on the field, and then keep getting injured. To have a good game tonight is a massive relief. The game out there was pretty brutal tonight and I came through it pretty well."

Minichiello's return was one of the many sub-plots to a match that reeked of finals footy. Every dropped ball was celebrated like a try. Fittingly, the defining play of the game came from a Dragons mistake. A deft touch from Roosters winger Sam Perrett presented five-eighth Braith Anasta with the clincher.

The points came late but the drama started early.

Last season, Willie Mason spent the off-season changing clubs, rubbing shoulders in the Birdcage at the Melbourne Cup, and lounging around the pool in Far North Queensland as Wendell Sailor rubbed suntan lotion into his back. This year, he'll spend it rebuilding his right knee after being carried from the field in the 11th minute, his anterior cruciate ligament blown, his season buried.

Of course, Mason's myriad detractors will say he hasn't been playing well enough for his loss to be noticed.

He was merely the first wreck in the carnage of last night.

As Mason left the field, prop Mark O'Meley was being placed on report for a high shot on Dragons opposite Jason Ryles. It only filled Shrek's nostrils with the scent of blood. Minutes later, he lined up teammate Anthony Cherrington, who was making a tackle, and hammered him.

Clearly fearing O'Meley, Dragons five-eighth Ben Rogers decided to slam into another immovable object - an advertising sign - when he slid over the dead-ball line following a Roosters kick in-goal.

But the most ferocious smash-up came in the 28th minute, when Roosters centre Setaimata Sa collided with Dragons back-rower Ben Creagh off the ball and bodies went flying like tenpins.

Creagh looked like the drunkest man at the party as he left the field. He was later seen shaking in the Dragons rooms. Team officials were shaking their head that referee Shayne Hayne had not placed Sa on report.

In a match as brutal as last night's, you could have forgiven Minichiello for being wary about his neck. Was it on his mind? "At stages … " he said. "At the start of the game, I didn't think about it. I was just worried about my job. Last week's game [for Newtown] gave me a lot of confidence. Sometimes, when you get wrestled you think about it … [But] I know within myself and my body what limits I can go to. I knew I could get through a game."

One Roosters player who was never coming off was veteran back-rower Craig Fitzgibbon, who has played like a man possessed since Fittler took the captaincy off him two weeks ago and handed it to Anasta.

"He's been outstanding since, so it's been a great call," said Fitter. Everybody laughed but the coach was serious. "He's been our best trainer and best player. We were trying to look to give him a rest tonight but every time we did he just kept coming forward."

SYDNEY ROOSTERS 10 (B Anasta, A Minichiello tries; C Fitzgibbon goal) bt ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 0 at Sydney Football Stadium. Referee: S Hayne.