Finals football not a focus

One of them is odds-on for the minor premiership while the other is destined for a top-eight absence, but neither the Dragons nor the Warriors want to look that far into the future.

St George Illawarra's 29-4 romp at Mt Smart Stadium on Sunday opened a four-point lead over the chasing pack in the NRL with six rounds remaining.

Given the form that has seen them drop only four matches all year, the Dragons are widely considered to already have one hand on the J.J Giltinan Shield for finishing as the minor premiers.

Not so, according to coach Wayne Bennett.

"I don't feel like I've got one hand on anything right now," Bennett said.

"We'll turn up each week, keep doing the best we can and see where it all finishes. It hasn't entered into our talks or calculations."

"We'll cross that bridge if we get there – for now we're trying to be a consistent footy team, being good at the right times against the top teams and that's where our focus is."

Bennett gave his players seven days off during the previous week's bye round to recharge their batteries and refocus on the run home.

The Dragons responded with a commanding first-half display to lead 18-4, although their coach felt an error-strewn final 40 minutes was a 'carry-over' of coming off the bye.

If only Warriors coach Ivan Cleary's worries were that insignificant.

Instead, his 13th-placed side is almost certainly resigned to its first no-show in the finals since Cleary's first year in charge back in 2006, when a four-point docking for salary cap issues the previous year proved costly.

"I'm not thinking about that at the moment," Cleary said of any lingering hopes of a play-off berth.

"We'll have to improve a fair bit, obviously. Honestly I'm not thinking about that at all and probably haven't been for the last couple of weeks."

"I know it's a bit of a cliché but it's about getting the boys up to take on a good Penrith team next week over there. That's what we're thinking about."

Captain Steve Price echoed his coach's thoughts, saying: "You've got to worry about the foundation first before you worry about the big building."

Cleary was again left to bemoan a lack of potency on attack as the Warriors failed to register a single point after Joel Moon's seventh-minute dot-down, although it was hardly surprising against the Dragons outfit that now leads the NRL in points-for (440) and against (234).

"It's been our strength, I've got to say. Our players have been wonderful," Bennett said of the visitors' defensive steel.

The Dragons did it all without centre Matt Cooper, who was a late scratching with a torn heel, while Jeremy Smith also dropped off an extended bench as he continues to battle a stress fracture in his foot.

Cooper was rated a chance of returning next Friday at home to Melbourne but the risk of further damage is likely to keep Smith from the field for at least another couple of weeks.

One of the only positives for the Warriors is a lack of injury concerns, although wing Kevin Locke's quiet afternoon may have been down to the lingering effects of a shoulder knock that kept him out of the previous week's victory over the Roosters.

Injury was not the basis for Lewis Brown's omission from the final four-man interchange bench and the rookie second-rower could consider himself desperately unlucky to miss out after being one of the Warriors' rare shining lights in 2009.