While the league world comes to terms with Melbourne Storm's fall from grace, St George Illawarra proved they're worthy of inheriting the title as NRL premiership favourites.
Ruthless and efficient, the Dragons steamrolled the Sydney Roosters in the second half of yesterday's blockbuster in front of a record Anzac Day crowd of 36,212 people at the Sydney Football Stadium.
The 28-6 triumph showed all the hallmarks of the team Wayne Bennett has developed.
Full coverage of the Dragons VOTE IN POLL: Can the Melbourne Storm survive the salary cap scandal?Neither Bennett nor Roosters coach Brian Smith were prepared to offer an opinion on the Storm's plight - stripped of their titles and offered no hope of playing in this year's finals.
Brushing aside the hype over the Dragons' premiership chances in the wake of the scandal, Bennett said they had learned their lessons from last year about peaking at the right time.
"It's too early to call," Bennett said when asked about the Dragons being genuine title contenders.
"Seasons aren't won in rounds seven or eight. When you're into the last part of the season somewhere in August and September, that's when they're won.
"At the moment, we're doing what we want to do and going pretty consistently ... and we've got to maintain that going into August, September."
Declaring there was plenty of improvement left in their attack, Dragons captain Ben Hornby likened the intensity and atmosphere of yesterday's Anzac Day showdown to finals football.
"It's pretty close, but I still think finals are a step up," he said.
"The atmosphere is definitely the same as the finals, but I think the finals are a little bit quicker."
Trailing 6-4 at the break, the Dragons hit the lead in the 47th minute when young prop Trent Merrin scored his first NRL try, scrapping and barging and fighting his way over the line despite the attention of Roosters trio Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Sam Brunton and Todd Carney.
Centre Matt Cooper, who produced one of his best games since struggling with a hamstring injury at the start of the season, then put St George Illawarra surging ahead 16-6 after pouncing on a ball that had escaped the clutches of Todd Carney.
The game was out of the Roosters' grasp when veteran hooker Luke Priddis capitalised on a damaging angled run from second-rower Ben Creagh.
A penalty try further extended the margin five minutes from time after Cooper was held back by his marker, Shaun Kenny-Dowall.
Despite trailing early in the match, the Dragons had the best of the opportunities, with fullback Darius Boyd held up by the desperate cover of Roosters winger Sam Perrett and halfback Mitchell Pearce.
The boot of Roosters fullback Todd Carney had produced the game's first points, before Cooper set up Dragons try-scoring machine Brett Morris for the game's first four-pointer in the 26th minute.
Morris, scoring his eighth try of the year, was the beneficiary of two Dragons scrum feeds deep in Roosters territory.
The first appeared to be incorrectly awarded after captain Ben Hornby - and not his opponent - knocked a Soward kick forward.
But it was the Roosters who took a 6-4 lead to half-time, with a try just seconds before the break.
They had been granted another set after Michael Weyman was bundled into touch by Braith Anasta while reeling in a desperate Phil Graham flick pass.
Moments later, on the other side of the field, Roosters second-rower Mitchell Aubusson touched down to make the most of Sam Perrett's tap back from Pearce's in-goal chip.
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