I IMAGINE Tim Sheens slept well last night while Nathan Brown battled a headache the size of Texas.
The opening game of any season is a very nervous time for all NRL coaches. It represents the first serious examination of your off-season training program and whether or not the changes you've made to personnel and playing style have actually improved you as a team.
You like to think you have covered all bases and that everything is in place for a successful season. You may even play well in the practice matches, but many have found that good trial form can be painfully misleading.
Others are hit with the reality that the skills, plays and players that look so silky smooth during training drills suddenly crumble under the pressure of real competition.
The Dragons came to the SFS yesterday seemingly confident and relaxed; unfortunately, their meek performance against Wests Tigers gave their fans little evidence of the hard work they had reportedly been subjecting themselves to during the summer months.
You might think I'm being harsh, seeing the difference on the scoreboard was only eight points - but in reality, the final margin flattered the Dragons. They never looked likely.
Not that they didn't try hard. In fact, all 34 players who took part in this match played in oppressive heat under a blazing sun deserve credit for their courage and tenacity. These attributes are not in question.
However, the Dragons fell down on so many of the basics required to win a football game that we never really got a chance to witness the new style of play Brown had predicted only a few weeks ago.
From the opening whistle, they surrendered control of the match to their opponents and never threatened to get it back.
Their defence lacked aggression and purpose. They tackled very few mistakes into their opponents. In attack, they turned possession over to the Tigers on numerous occasions with unforced errors and poor concentration. Their attention to detail on the basics of the game left a lot to be desired.
This meant they had to do a lot of defending in the steamy conditions and as the Tigers ran them ragged with quick play-the-balls and snappy changes of direction around the middle of the field, the scoreboard started to tick against them.
Many times they would compound an error in possession by immediately giving away an undisciplined penalty to give their opposition cheap territorial gains.
Their attacking structure looked cumbersome and inefficient. They struggled to make metres over the advantage line with their forwards, they ran too much from dummy half, they had too many hit-ups in each set of six and they rarely moved the ball to their fast men out on the edges.
The Tigers defended well, but the Dragons didn't really ask them a lot of questions.
I feel their dummy halves try to do too much and try to look too pretty. Their forwards rarely pass the ball. Their halves appear to lack authority and direction.
The thing that amazed me the most about their performance is the fact their champion centre Mark Gasnier, who is one of the most dangerous attacking players in the game, hardly touched the ball.
With his first touch in the Tigers' 20-metre zone, Gasnier stepped and muscled his way past three defenders to score a great solo try.
You'd think that would spur his teammates to deliver him plenty more opportunities to repeat the dose.
Alas, for the rest of the game, he only handled the ball five more times - and four of those came when he went to dummy half to have a run.
No, whatever way you look at it, the Dragons were poor.
The Tigers on the other hand played smart, played to the conditions and certainly played to their strengths.
They managed to transfer their hard work on the training paddock into game-day execution.
They moved the ball with confidence and controlled the tempo of the match to suit themselves.
I still have doubts over their goalline defence, but we will have to wait until they play a team with good attack before we cast a final judgment.
On yesterday's form, though, they will finish in front of the Dragons this season.
