Back to the beloved Jubilee Oval to watch the Dragons go around against the Newcastle Knights. The Dragons are in a massive form slump and its been a long time between drinks since the last win!

I have not been able to go out to a day game as I missed the last home game against Cronulla which probably was the last time we had won a game! Due to it being a day game, I decided to try my hand and grab (or hire) some equipment to see if it makes a difference before attempting to buy better equipment for my quest to become a sports photographer.

Everyone says you need a 300mm or 400mm so I made the trek out to Sun Studio in Sydney today to hire something to get me the zoom distance. It was a toss up between getting a Canon Extender 1.4X III or 300mm f/2.8 L lens. I played with both and as much as I liked to have taken the 300mm beast I decided that since I only had one camera body with me, the smarter choice was to get the Canon Extender 1.4X III. There are the obvious negatives which meant that my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS L MK 1 lens was going to be stopped down to f/4 but the positive was that I was still able to zoom. So today I will be getting a reach of 280mm out of my 70-200mm. The 300mm seemed quick at focusing but the lack of zoom just got me a little worried since I sit next to the fence and will need to zoom to the shorter end from time to time.

I'm not much of a reviewer, the extra zoom did help and I got keepers that way. Apart from the aperture slow down, I did notice and had read about the focus speeds being a little slower. It did feel slower but being a newbie the missed shots may have just been me.

This has got me thinking now, where can I try the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM (Sport). I better save my pennies, I have a sneaking suspicion this may just be the lens to get me further into sports photography. I can take this in to some venues where as a 400mm f/2.8 I am sure I will need a media pass.

For those interested in the statistics, the Dragons came out on top. It was Marvel Super Hero week and the Dragons had their IronMan jersey on and the Knights had their Spiderman jersey's. They had a great start and then fell away and were trailing the Knights at half time. They then kicked in to action. So I thank the Dragons to make it such an eventful day.

OK with out further or do here are the pics. Everything was taken with the extender on the camera and paired to the 70-200mm on my Canon 1Dx.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 46 (J Dugan 2 T Frizell B Marshall W Matthews M Rein G Widdop tries G Widdop 9 goals) bt NEWCASTLE 24 (A Clydsdale K Gidley J Mamo T Randell N Ross tries T Roberts 2 goals) at Jubilee Oval. Referee: Gavin Reynolds, Grant Atkins. Crowd: 10,236.

Former premiership winning Dragon, Jeremy Smith

Opposing captains, Gidley in the No.1 and Jason Nightingale leads the Dragons out

Gagai holds up Dugan whilst Widdop watches on

Try Try Try, Mitch Rein crosses for the 2nd try of the afternoon, why is the Ref going to the video?

Happy Dragon is definitely happy that's 12-0

Ball and All, Peter Mata'utia locks up Clint Newton

Jack de Belin hits it up strong through the middle

Benji does the smart thing and passes before Smith gets a hold of him

Half time interval is almost done and the Flames are warming the crowd up

de Belin and Marshall are arguing who is the real IronMan

Woohhh that's lifting almost above the horizontal

Josh Dugan a 2 try scorer in this game, hits it up.. tatts and all

Duges has played tough all year, probably a bit busted after Origin but going well enough

Joseph Tapine tries to get away from Benji and Dugan

Jake Mamo... close but no cigar... NO TRY

Red and White Army are happy !! It's looking like a good Sunday arvo

Captain Creagh tells the boys, follow me and I'll lead you the way ... to a WIN!

Desperate try line defense is returning Marketo and Creagh are wrapping the Knight up

That's a bit awkward, Thompson, Aitken and Widdop all want a piece of it and Dugan watches on

And that is full time, the good old score board tells the story