Dragons end 15-game losing streak with biggest upset of the NRL season

The Dragons have ended one of the longest losing streaks in NRL history with the most remarkable upset of 2026 – a 30-26 triumph over reigning premiers Brisbane on their own Suncorp Stadium turf.

For 295 days and in 15 straight losses stretching back to last August, St George Illawarra have had nothing. Former coach Shane Flanagan lost his job along the way.

Unwanted NRL history stalked at every turn – only 10 teams have endured longer winless runs. The Dragons’ 0-11 start to the year was trumped only by the Rabbitohs of 2006 (0-12) and Knights of 2005 (0-13).

And then the Dragons thumped the Broncos, whose 26-point tally flattered them in a contest the visitors dominated.

Co-captain Clint Gutherson shrugged off his injury battles to steer the club to the breakthrough win with the type of critical defensive plays that have been the hallmark of his dog-with-a-bone career.

Much-maligned veteran Valentine Holmes featured prominently alongside the Dragons’ emerging local juniors, led by back-rowers Hamish Stewart and Dylan Egan.

It was Holmes’ second try – in which he knocked up an errant Broncos pass before kicking and regathering – that gave the visitors genuine hope and a 26-8 advantage.

“There’s a lot of media around the future of this club through the young crop [of players] that we’ve got, but you can’t turn anything around with a young group,” Dean Young said after the first win of his second coming as Dragons coach.

The Broncos briefly traded in late hope themselves as Josiah Karapani (68th minute), Xavier Willison (73rd) and Jesse Arthars (79th) all scored to threaten a monumental comeback.

But the Dragons deserved their first win in nine months as they withstood one last desperate Broncos play and a nerve-jangling final 16 seconds.

Brisbane have real worries after slumping to a fourth straight defeat of their own, conceding an average of 35.5 points along the way.

Coach Michael Maguire conceded his side had taken the last-placed Dragons lightly and made the rare decision to oversee proceedings from the sideline midway through the second half.

“I just felt for whatever reason we were flat, and I wanted to get down and get the feeling of what was going on there,” he said.

Pat Carrigan and Ezra Mam battled through ankle issues while Payne Haas at least returned from his knee injury in ominous form – trampling Kyle Flanagan at one point in a 50-metre bust as he finished with a game-high 281 metres.

Haas summed up Brisbane’s woes aptly at full-time, though, when he told ABC Sport: “We’re all talk at the moment. We keep saying we’re going t