Devoted Dragons supporter Brian Doyle has a theory relating to blame-casters: "The people in the corporate boxes blame the front office of the club. The ones in the reserved seats blame the coach. The fans on the hill blame the players."

Doyle, a comedian, was not joking. He suggests the vast majority of people blame the men who miss tackles, drop balls, throw bad passes and incur penalties.

Legendary American baseball owner Bill Veeck expressed a similar view when he said: "In 20 years of walking around ball parks, I've come to the conclusion knowledge of the game is in inverse proportion to the price of the seats." In other words, the mob knows best.

You'd expect the sponsors and suits in the luxury suites to blame the club administration. After all, businessmen become successful by astute decision-making, and therefore expect the front office of their football club to be a reflection of themselves.

Season-ticket holders always blame the coach. They are what Americans call "Monday morning quarterbacks" - people who always know what to do after the weekend match. The problem is they are never as sure what to do the hour or so before the match.

Monday night football has produced "Tuesday morning quarterbacks", and there were plenty of Dragons experts who knew what positional changes coach Nathan Brown got wrong when St George Illawarra were embarrassed by the Sharks.

MNF has also produced another target for blame - NRL match schedulers. After four rounds, it is apparent teams playing on Monday nights can't win the following weekend.

South Sydney are the only team to win on Monday night then repeat the feat the following weekend, defeating Parramatta 31-6 in round two.

However, the Rabbitohs played on Sunday, unlike most of the other Monday night teams, who have been forced to back up on Saturday nights.

Teams travelling a long distance to or from a Monday night game appear particularly vulnerable. The Sharks lost to the Titans on a referee's call at the Gold Coast and were then humbled by the Rabbitohs on a Saturday night at Toyota Park, usually a formidable venue for any team.

Similarly, the Raiders left Canberra - where their young team defeated the Knights on a Monday night - and travelled to Parramatta, where they were humiliated on a Saturday night. The Knights travelled home to play the Storm the same Saturday evening and were gone after half-time.

Coaches today speak of "short weeks", when they have a turnaround of five days. It means they have to fit travel, rehabilitation and video analysis into a shorter period.

The NRL argues Monday night football hasn't created super short weeks because no team is required to back up on Friday night. Chief operating officer Graham Annesley says a team playing Sunday and again on Friday is no different to a Monday night team playing on a Saturday.

"The number of days in between is still the same, bar about four hours," he says. "Mentally, there may be a day missing in preparation, but it's not as if 24 hours has suddenly disappeared."

When teams playing on Monday night wake up the following morning, they know the other 14 teams in the NRL have completed their rehab, massage, match dissection, team selection, weights - and some have already done conditioning, and the coaches are a day into preparation for next week's match.

It's not until midweek that the Monday night teams can consider their opponents and their starting personnel. Monday night football is also a big event in the minds of the players. Only 25 per cent of homes have Fox Sports, but the players know all their peers will be watching. It's the only stand-alone match in the NRL week.

Friday night football, once the match of the round, now has to share the evening with another game. Because of the focus players place on the Monday night game, there is an inevitable letdown afterwards. Letdown plus travel plus short preparation equals loss.

This is bad news for Mr Doyle, because the Dragons play the Storm tomorrow night at Jubilee Stadium, even if they've only had to travel half an hour along the Princes Highway from Toyota Park. But, as Doyle says: "The real supporter doesn't blame the front office, the coach, the players, or even the NRL. He reserves his venom purely and simply for the referee, the referee's mother and father, his children and any friends he is unlikely to have ever had."