Gareth Widdop goes down injured after 39 minutes. The Dragons go on to lose in golden point. They win just 6 of their remaining 16 matches and miss the finals.

Fast forward to Anzac Day 2018 and the Dragons are in the same situation, 6-1 heading into the key clash after yet another impressive start.

But this year is different, vows coach Paul McGregor. This year, the team has a genuine halfback leading the team around the park. This year, the forwards are firing on all cylinders, one year older and one year wiser.

“We’ve got different personnel, more experience, two very experienced players in James [Graham] and Ben [Hunt],” McGregor said. “And our guys are a lot more experienced individually too. 

“Our forwards are around that age, 27, which is a really nice age for seasoned players. We’ve got Euan [Aitken] now in his third, fourth year, [Matt] Dufty is a point of difference in attack, Cam McInnes is now an 80-minute player, he wasn’t this time last year. It’s a combination of everything, not just one thing.

“But certainly, we’re in a better situation than we ever have been in my three years as coach, we’ve just got to go out and be consistent on a weekly basis throughout the competition.”

Dragons winger Jason Nightingale, preparing to play in a record-equaling 11th Anzac Day clash, agrees with McGregor. The 252-game veteran has seen it all in his 11 years at the club and he knows this is a talented team. 

“I think everyone’s a year older and got that year’s more experience,” Nightingale said. 

“Everyone’s gone through what we went through last year, barring a couple of people who we’ve added to our squad that probably didn’t need that experience. 

“I think that makes a big difference, everyone learns our lessons, from players, staff, the club in general. I think the difference is obviously a couple of high quality senior players and also the lessons of last year.

“We all make mistakes, and we made plenty of mistakes last year and I feel like we’re still learning from them. I think it wasn’t just last year, but the last couple of years.”

Whereas in 2017, many felt the Dragons 6-1 record was deceiving, that cannot be said this year. The Dragons have been clear competition frontrunners throughout the first six weeks of the season, but Friday’s loss to the Warriors knocked the team down a few pegs. It’s a feeling the team doesn’t want to experience anytime soon, Nightingale said. 

“I feel like we performed pretty well last week, it’s just more the emotions, ‘oh that’s right, losing sucks’. So, although we were happy with a lot of things that happened in the game in New Zealand, we’ve got room to improve.

“The difference in emotions between winning and losing is very different for a week and this is a good game where you don’t have to read too deeply into anything, you pretty much turn up on the day and feel good.”