AS they say, a week's a long time in rugby league. This week, the Dragons managed to produce the best performance of their season, albeit against a depleted Manly side.
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It halted a two-game losing streak and, if they can back it up against the Bulldogs in Wollongong this week, they could even be back in the top eight by next week.
Things sure change quick and there's certainly a lot to digest from Sunday's game. So, here's the five things we learned from the Dragons 34-4 win over the Sea Eagles.
As a halfback, Ben Hunt makes a helluva dummy-half.
That's said respectfully. Few players are as extensively analysed and scrutinised as the Dragons highest-paid player, largely because that's what he is.
When the Dragons have struggled, which is most of the time over the last nine months, there's no shortage of people willing to look at his every movement, every drop of his head, every roll of his eyes, every exasperated breath for a clue into what's going on in his head.
Most often the answer, as best we can deduce, is too much. Whenever he's been struggling that mind seems to be ticking over a million miles an hour. At dummy-half on Sunday, he looked measured.
When he was initially shifted to the bench he was quite open about the fact he wanted to return to halfback sooner rather than later, indicating he wasn't quite on board with the shift.
Paul McGregor seemingly gave him no choice by putting the No. 9 on his back. It forced him to go all in and he did, as much without the footy as he did with it.
Making 53 tackles is no small feat and, for a player who seems perennially torn over when and where to inject himself into the game, it's fair way to get involved from the outset.
In reality, his touches with the ball were subtle but telling. The criticism of the Dragons this season has been that they've looked one-out and one-dimensional in get-out sets.
Hunt seemingly changed that in a single match, running from dummy-half and getting his big men onto the footy - it played no small part in Paul Vaughan's outstanding 237 run metres just by giving him a start on the defence.
It also partly another conundrum for McGregor. People have howled 'you can't have your highest paid player coming off the bench' but you can have him playing No. 9.
Premiership-winning hooker Nathan Fien told The Mercury a month ago that you can be even more influential at dummy-half. Cameron Smith, the most influential player in the history of our game, is a case in point.
In a team like the Dragons, where the other stars are more of the gritty and willing variety than the brilliant, it's arguably a better fit.
Cam McInnes deserves plenty of kudos.
No player epitomises the idea of a "team first mentality" more than the Dragons skipper. A lot of people will say the number on a player's back is just that - including a lot of players - but it disregards how hard they've had to work to earn it.
It's on thing to be shifted out of your preferred number because you're out of form - as Hunt and Corey Norman have dealt with this season - it's another altogether to give it up when you've been your side's best player for more than a year.
McInnes has demonstrably been that for the Dragons. It takes a fair bit of pride to give up your jumper and move into a position you're not even that familiar with for the betterment of the team; and it is a completely different position.
Its not a half shifting between halfback and five-eighth, it's completely different role. As Paul McGregor remarked post-match on Sunday, it's one he's warming to.
He had 14 carries for 140-odd metres on Sunday and, in a pack without a lot of variety in shape, size and attribute, brought a point of difference. It certainly appeared, for the first time, that he and Hunt were enjoying a their new role rather than merely playing it.
Fair go, Corey Norman deserves a wrap.
Normy has copped his fair share of flak, including on this page last week, but credit where's it's due, Sunday's win was probably his best performance of the season.
It didn't show up on the stat sheet but even his best performances rarely do, he's not that type of player. What he did show was energy and commitment, you don't beat two defenders to a kick in the 76th minute without it.
He also popped up on the other side of the field to link with Adam Clune on occasions and was another to benefit from the extra yard Hunt gave the side out of dummy-half.
Consistecy has always been his issue, but it was a step in the right direction at least.
While we're at it, so does Adam Clune.
They haven't been easy circumstances in which to find your feet in the NRL but Clune's certainly rolled with it and looks to be rolling with it.
He's hung around on the fringes to debut at 25 and you don't do that without self-awareness and he's played that way. McGregor gave his No. 7 a pat on Sunday, urging observers not to overlook his role in a new spine structure.
"Adam Clune's the one we're not talking about at the moment in the spine but he's making that jumper his own so it's very hard to move a young guy that's improving on a weekly basis."
Was the board right to come out in support of McGregor?
We'll probably won't really know the answer until further down the track but his card certainly seemed punched when the Dragons board called an extraordinary meeting the day after an abysmal showing against Canterbury.
In the end, they came out of that meeting and backed the coach. They haven't set the world on fire since - they're 3-2 - but it's somewhat eliminated it as a discussion point. McGregor admitted in the post-match presser that he still has to answer the questions about it, but there's a lot less of them than there were a month ago.
It seems to have had some effect on the playing group. Once they realised the coach wasn't going anywhere the focus was always going to shift to their performances.
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Players with a difficult relationship with the coach realise they have to make it work, those who are close with the coach don't feel they're playing for his future every week.
All seem to be at play for the Dragons, but taking the sacking of the coach off the tables seems to have helped rather than hindered their performances.
Brisbane looked to take a leaf out of that book when they backed Anthony Seibold last week. It does nothing to appease arguably the two most demanding fanbases in the NRL, but it seems to have some impact inside the tent.
A look elsewhere in the league and the Bulldogs hardly seem to be benefitting from the ongoing speculation around Dean Pay's future, while the Warriors haven't soared to new heights since Stephen Kearney was marched.
Ask again in a month or two but it seems to have had a cumulatively positive impact.