Dragons fire as Bulldogs continue to falter

St George Illawarra firmed as NRL premiership favourites after a Brett Morris hat-trick propelled the red and whites to a 26-6 win over Canterbury at WIN Stadium on Friday night.

The Dragons proved last week’s win over Parramatta was no fluke as they produced another flawless display to record their first win over Canterbury in Wollongong, the loss leaving the Bulldogs without a win after the first two rounds ahead of a clash with the red-hot Sydney Roosters.

There are no such concerns for St George Illawarra who blew away the opposition with a stunning opening burst which yielded 16 unanswered points in as many minutes to make the match-up between the two sides which finished one and two on the ladder last year a no-contest.

The Dragons wasted little time in getting the 16,177-strong crowd on their feet, with a Brett Morris swan dive in front of a hill bathed in red, white and blue making it 6-0 off the back of a brilliant Darius Boyd cut-out pass.

If that was precise, the Dragons’ next effort could only be described as pitiful with the Bulldogs defence opening up on its own line for Dean Young to go through untouched, and it was all the home side when Morris had his second following a Matt Prior bust inside his own half.

The Bulldogs were giving themselves no chance as they continued to piggy-back the Dragons up the field, their efforts made a little harder when Michael Hodgson limped off before a quarter of the game had passed with a suspected medial ligament strain.

The Dragons’ dominance was shown up when Ben Hornby spilled the ball for their first error in the 21st minute, while the Bulldogs’ frustration boiled over when Bryson Goodwin traded blows with Beau Scott on halftime.

Veteran Brett Kimmorley did his best to extend the Dragons’ lead as he gave up two penalties and dropped the ball all inside the first six minutes of the second half, the second of the penalties allowing Jamie Soward to extend the margin to three converted tries.

The Bulldogs finally earned themselves a repeat set ten minutes into the second stanza, and the sustained period of attack paid dividends as Ben Barba danced his way over to give the small visiting contingent in the stands some hope.

Their momentum was crushed when Gary Warburton gave away a dubious flop penalty near the Dragons line, the home side weathering the Canterbury surge before Nick Emmett stretched out to confirm the two competition points before Morris completed his hat-trick three minutes from time.

“I was just happy to get two to catch up to Josh (brother and Bulldogs centre Josh Morris) but I did one better and I’ve got him covered now,” said Brett Morris, who won a case of beer last year for beating Josh in the try-scoring ranks.

“Hopefully I can stay on top and we might have to bring the bet back out.”

Dragons coach Wayne Bennett fired an ominous warning suggesting the best was yet to come for the read and whites.

“Of course there’s lots of improvement in us – it’s ridiculous to think we’re on the top of our game after two weeks,” Bennett said.

“I suppose a lot of things we did well last week we did well again.

“It was a good start by us but they were a little bit off the pace – they wouldn’t be happy with the way they started.”

Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore lamented a lopsided 9-3 penalty count and his side’s second poor start in as many weeks, while also admitting his side had some work to do on its left sided defence.

“Steve (Turner) and Jamal (Idris) are a new pairing together – we need to keep working hard with them,” Moore said.

“A couple of times we made some poor choices.

“Getting to 16-0 after 17 minutes, that hurt but there wasn’t a lot in the rest of the game.”

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