The Dragons trailed 14-0 after as many minutes, and 28-0 at the break on the back of a double from Kayln Ponga. Tim Glasby and Kurt Mann also grabbed four-pointers in the best half of football the Knights have produced this season.

Young-gun Zac Lomax put the restart after Ponga's first try kickoff dead on the full in a forgettable opening stanza for the Dragons.

The loss is their fourth on the trot and bucked a recent trend of strong starts and late-game fades, with the Knights on top from start to finish.

It takes the Dragons season tally to 4-6 and a clearly frustrated McGregor said a selection shake-up will likely be on the cards ahead of next Sunday's clash with Cronulla in Wollongong.

"I think in the first 40 we didn't show any resilience in defending errors or penalties, which is highly disappointing," McGregor said.

"We went into the half 28-0 down. We came out in the second half and it was 15-12 but it's nowhere near good enough. We've got to have a real good look at why.

"Up until today our first 40 minutes is [that of a] top four side and our last 40 minutes is a bottom four side. That's just way too inconsistent from this team.

"I think a couple of our leads in the last month have covered up our 80-minute performances. We had some comfortable leads the last two weeks and we had a good second half against the Roosters [in round seven] but today put a full stop to that.

"We can use experience missing on the sideline [as an excuse], we can use the learning that we're getting at the moment, but the same people are making the same errors or poor reads on a weekly basis so it might be time for change.

"When there's a lot of people missing with experience you can get comfortable, I'm not saying that's the case at the minute.

"It's disappointing if it is, but we're halfway through the year and if we're still making the same errors and giving away the same penalties and the same people are doing it, they're obviously not listening."

It also came in the wake of star lock Jack de Belin's failed federal court bid to return from a no-fault stand-down imposed by the NRL, leaving them without the NSW Origin star for the remainder of the season.

McGregor didn't attribute the performance to that decision but conceded it may have been a distraction on some level.

"I hope that didn't have an effect on the performance today, some will say it may have because Jack's a very well-liked and important person in our football team," McGregor said.

"To be totally honest we all expected him to be available today but he wasn't and we had to move on pretty quick from that.

"There's feeling there, there's emotion there for sure. Whether that played a role in today's performance or in my build-up subconsciously I'm not sure.

"I spoke to Jack, his next move we're not sure of so I can't comment much more than that until we get back home and have a sit down and a chat.

"He's a big part of our lives but he wasn't there today, there were 17 players and coaching staff who didn't do what they needed to do."

The club has indicated it will seek to shift de Belin's contract money off its salary cap while he remains stood down. Trent Merrin has been linked to a return to his former club but McGregor said he's yet to consider any options.

"I haven't but Ian Millward who looks after our recruitment and cap has been working hard over it for quite some time over different alternatives," McGregor said.

"I didn't want to talk about anything until next week because I wanted to focus on today and obviously get over the disappointment of the Jack de Belin decision.

"It's extremely disappointing. He's a part of our club and a part of our team. He's got the presumption of innocence until he gets his opportunity in court, which he's not getting anywhere else at the moment."

Korbin Sims will return from a broken arm for next week's clash with the Sharks while Corey Norman is also a chance of making an early return from a fractured cheekbone, though a return after the round 11 bye appears more likely.

If the first 40 minutes was disappointing, the Dragons showed little resistance in the second, with Shaun Kenny-Dowall crossing three minutes after the resumption and Mitchell Pearce following up nine minutes later.

Ponga's teammates seemed the only ones capable of stopping their star No. 1, with Lachlan Fitzgibbon denying him his hat-trick with a tug on Tyson Frizell's jersey in the lead-up to what looked like his third four-pointer.

Tariq Sims finally opened his side's account against a 12-man defensive line after Kurt Mann was sent to the sin-bin after seven straight penalties midway through the second half.

Lomax made it back to back tries for his side four minutes later but Connor Watson's 71^st minute try retook momentum for the Knights, with Pearce putting a one-point exclamation point on the win a minute from time.