Both McGregor and Marshall were forced to hose-down reports of a rift in the lead up to the the clash following the off-contract 32-year-old’s poor showing against Brisbane in the Dragons round 22 loss to the Broncos.

It saw plenty of fans call for Marshall to be dropped to reserve grade but McGregor insisted during the week that that conversation “has never been had”. Marshall responded with two try-assists and a line-break assist as the Dragons racked up their biggest score of the season against their local rivals.

It’s unlikely to earn Marshall a new deal with the club but it could well save him the ignominy of finishing the season, and possibly his career, in reserve grade.

“It was good and it’s what you want from your play-maker,” McGregor said.

“You want them to build pressure and, when the opportunity presents, create tries. To come off a game like he did last week and the pressure he’s been under in all sorts of areas is really good. It’ll give him plenty of confidence heading into next week.”

Captain and fellow half Gareth Widdop also returned to form against Cronulla producing a try-assist of his own and scoring the match-winning try in the 73^rd minute.

“It was obviously enjoyable. The last few weeks we’ve been close and [Saturday night] was a reward for the effort we’ve been putting in,” Widdop said.

“If you keep working hard for each other and do the simple things you can score some points off the back of it. That’s what we were doing, we were running hard which presents your offloads and we just played off the back of it.

“They’re a top team, they’re on top of the ladder and have been great all year so to get the win we should take a lot of confidence from that. To be behind at half-time and come home strong and finish like that was obviously great.

“The work we’re putting in off the field that people don’t see is paying off which is great. The biggest thing now is to back it up next week because if we don’t it means nothing.”