DO you ever feel overwhelmingly that something needs to be said and that even though you've said it before, it looks like it's your turn again?

That's how I feel when I read that the Dragons are on track to win "their first premiership since 1979".

If there is anyone out there who doesn't know what rant is about to come, I'll bring you up to speed. This writer didn't just go the to the Illawarra Steelers first game - he went to their first training session. He has the cornerpost from their first trial in '82 somewhere and rates the 1992 preliminary final against St George as the most stressful and disappointing day of his life.

I'm serious. So you know what I'm going to say, don't you?

St George Illawarra have NEVER won a premiership. The Dragons are a joint venture. Wests Tigers did not win their first premiership since 1969 in 2005, they won their inaugural title.

The St George half of the Dragons is always magnanimous and a little patronising towards us when things aren't going so well. But as soon as the sods get a sniff of old Norm and Arthur's bronzed backsides, they make like we don't exist.

Having never had an earthquake to bond it, Wollongong's civic personality is best described as laid back. Gongites know they've got it pretty good but couldn't be arsed if no-one else does.

So when the Dragons run out dressed like spiderman or a bandaged soldier instead of wearing the scarlet with two white stripes of the Steelers, they just shrug, smile and order another beer at the most picturesque stadium in the league universe.

But I don't live in Wollongong anymore. I don't have the shadow of Mt Keira or the sea salt of North Beach to calm me after hearing "SAINT GEORGE" chanted by 20,000 people for two hours at bloody Kogarah.

So I DO give a shit. I grit my teeth every time someone says "St George" and not "Illawarra". I stick sharp, rusty pins in my rugby league commentator doll collection every time one of the buggers calls the Dragons "a Sydney team".

Even Wayne Bennett thinks he lives in Sydney. Wayne - Wollongong's a different effing city, you banana-bending geographical illiterate!

And the only people I want to hear bringing up 1979 are the Smashing Pumpkins.

You can curse my friends, my family, my profession, my music, my fashion sense and me but if I hear another person say the Dragons are "a takeover'' and all the Steelers got were "the socks", I swear I am going to take a Uzi to work.

Apparently St George Illawarra CEO Peter Doust announced last month that the Steelers strip would be the permanent alternative jersey from next year. When they wore it at Homebush earlier this year, I had a team again.

I felt every tackle, cheered (internally) every pass and wanted to headbutt a wall in response to every error. It was like getting feeling back in a long-dead limb.

But by winning their first final at the weekend, the Dragons guaranteed themselves the choice of jersey in the decider if they make it. We know which one they will choose.

There are those who say the "Illawarra" suffix will go the same way as "-Sutherland" and "-Warringah". The last active Steelers, Trent Barrett and Luke Patten, departed the NRL two weeks ago.

When the last Steelers shuffle off this mortal coil in another 50 or 60 years, will anyone still be saying "St George Illawarra"?

I don't know and I don't care. Just because you're fighting a losing battle doesn't mean it's a battle that's not worth fighting. I don't want to think I spent 15 long winters shivering at Wollongong Showground in ridiculously bright, tacky merchandise watching a team get flogged for absolutely nothing.

So I'll be finding new and creative ways to write this column as long as I can use a keyboard. Over and over again. Get used to it.