NRL: Favouritism proving hard to live up to

Premiership favourites St George Illawarra were back to earth by Newcastle on Saturday. Photo / Getty Images

SYDNEY - The poisoned chalice of NRL premiership favouritism claimed another victim over the weekend while slumping Parramatta firmed for the dubious tag at the other end of the ladder.

The Bulldogs fell just short of a half century as they ran in nine tries to crush the Eels 48-18, the defensive display Parramatta's worst since giving up 54 points to Brisbane in 2005.

On Saturday night premiership favourites St George Illawarra had their four-game winning run ended by the streaking Knights, Newcastle's 24-18 win following impressive victories over premiers Manly and the Warriors.

"We tested ourselves against a team that everyone's talking about as premiership favourites," Knights coach Brian Smith said.

"I think we've had three or four of those premiership favourites so far this year - we'll probably have another three or four before the season's out."

Asked if his surging team was any chance of assuming the mantle, Smith said: "Definitely not."

"We're too young and there's some things we did there tonight that a more experienced and harder team would have probably iced that game a little better.

"But to come here and play this team that's in terrific form and in that style - we pretty much went at them the same way they fronted us and I think we matched them."

Fending off questions of favouritism is something Parramatta coach Daniel Anderson could only dream of as he questioned the second-last placed Eels' pride after the Bulldogs walked all over them at ANZ Stadium.

"We didn't commit in the second half, that's the simple fact of the matter, and it's pretty obvious to see," Anderson said.

The only thing easing the pressure on Anderson is Cronulla's ongoing nightmare with the Sharks' Adelaide adventure turning to dust with a 34-10 loss to North Queensland at Hindmarsh Stadium.

The loss left the Sharks stone last as the only team yet to rack up two wins in 2009, and coach Ricky Stuart lost for an explanation.

"That's not us out there, I'm dumbfounded, and I feel sorry for them (the players) because they know it's not them too," Stuart said.

"But it's bloody hard when you've got those statistics and you know you're a better team than that."

The Bulldogs' big win saw them move up to third behind Gold Coast and Brisbane - who beat Canberra and Penrith respectively on Friday night - though the 'Dogs could yet find themselves in top spot if they win back the two competition points stripped off them for fielding a 14th player in their round two win over Penrith.

A decision on their appeal is expected this week.

The Dragons and Knights fill out the top five with South Sydney slipping to sixth on the back of their disappointing 24-8 loss to Manly on Saturday night.

Melbourne can leapfrog the Rabbitohs when they take on Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval to close out round six on Monday night.

Elsewhere the Warriors got their campaign back on track with the little master Stacey Jones kicking a field goal in golden point to steer his side to a 17-16 win over the Sydney Roosters in Auckland.

The Roosters led 16-0 at the break but were unable to withstand the Jones-inspired resurgence as the 32-year-old halfback scored a try then put up the bombs for the other two.

"Stacey certainly turned it on, alright," Warriors coach Ivan Cleary said.

"He's showed over and over again in his career that he's capable of doing that and he did that again today by kicking off our comeback and keeping it going."

- AAP