Dragons end 10 months of agony, and deal Broncos a harrowing reality check

This was the win that had been more than nine months in the making for St George-Illawarra, one which has issued a damning reality check to the defending NRL champions.

It was on August 9 in round 23 last year when the Dragons last tasted victory, yet come Sunday afternoon they emerged as the Brisbane Broncos’ bogey team once again to claim a 30-26 triumph.

It ended a run of 15-straight defeats for the Red V, taking their streak against the Broncos to nine wins from their past 12 encounters, and in doing so, reduced the premiers to a fourth consecutive loss and leave their season on life support.

“That win has been four weeks in the making. We’ve done a lot of things right at training, and the last four weeks we’ve played the top four teams in the competition,” Dragons interim coach Dean Young said.

“We’ve played the Roosters, Newcastle, Penrith and the Warriors, and what we’ve learnt is where a top four standard is, and we’ve been taking that into our training. Today was what we want to see moving forward.”

From the early exchanges, the defence which delivered Brisbane the 2025 title was nowhere to be seen, with some flimsy arms tackles opening a passage for Hamish Stewart to put on some footwork and find Valentine Holmes to score the first try of the afternoon. A Daniel Atkinson grubber behind the line for himself soon doubled the lead, while the Broncos’ ball control began to fall by the wayside.

Seven first half errors compounded Brisbane coach Michael Maguire’s woes, with only a needless penalty as the halftime siren sounded when Moses Suli ran Reece Walsh off a kick chase giving the hosts their first points to trail 14-2.

Even after a Jesse Arthars intercept try got them back in the hunt, the Dragons were quick to strike back – Stewart marking a bomb from Atkinson and offloading back to Clint Gutherson, who found an unmarked Matt Feagai to score. Moments later, Holmes got his boot to a fumbled attempted intercept and streaked to score, with Setu Tu crossing shortly after for St George’s third try in five minutes.

Late tries to Josiah Karapani, Xavier Willison and Arthars made a game of it, but it was too little too late.

Maguire has been left frustrated by his side’s lack of discipline and intensity, and that was on show throughout the 80 minutes, as his maligned outfit committed 16 mistakes and dropped off tackles limply in the first half.

They have now let in 142 points in their past four games, and aside from their 24-point second half against the Roosters have gone missing in attack.

Not even Payne Haas’ return from a knee injury cou