Chances are he didn't, though he may wish he had. A few fans were wishing the same when their side trailed 24-0 after as many minutes, looking all at sea with and without the footy in a lacklustre opening stanza.

It shows how difficult a task Griffin does have in front of him, particularly as he's charged with rebooting much-maligned halves pairing Corey Norman and Ben Hunt. Both had moments they'd like to forget early in Sunday's fixture.

Hunt put a kick dead, another out on the full and was pinged for a crusher that could attract match review panel attention. Norman spilled the ball cold at first receiver and put a restart dead on the full and was collateral damage for Knights back-rower Aiden Guerra's 21st minute try.

They weren't alone but they'll inevitably wear the brunt of criticism for a defeat as disappointing as any they've endured this season, certainly under interim coach Dean Young.

"We wouldn't have beaten Dapto the way we played that first half, it was under 8's stuff," Young said.

"It was a disappointing performance, that's for sure. I didn't see it coming, I honestly thought we could win today but the players are probably lacking a bit of belief and probably don't believe they can win at the moment.

"We've been losing for two years now so the belief is certainly not there that we can go out and beat the tops sides but effort could be a lot better across the board.

"I tried to say 'forget the first half, start again'. There were a couple of areas we needed to fix up... it didn't really work because the second half wasn't much better.

"When you let in soft tries it's a reflection of what the game means to you. We're much better than that and the players know that."

Whether Griffin, or the fans can muster resolve to flick the tele on when their side takes on Melbourne next weekend is another question.

"Have we had enough or are we still really wanting to fight to the death... I'm not too sure, but we don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves," Young said.

"I know Melbourne won't be feeling sorry for us next week so we need to dust ourselves off and get ready for a game back at home.

"It's going to be a challenge but we've got to put our big-boy pants on and go into it. The NRL's not easy, we've got to get ready for it.

"We're back at home and I feel like we've got a lot to play for which is pride in the jersey. I'll prepare them as best I can this week and I expect us to come out and have a red-hot crack."

The Knights didn't have to wait long for their first points, with Chris Randall strolling through the middle of the Dragons defence and putting Kayln Ponga away for the opening four-pointer.

Gehamat Shibasaki plucked a Mitchell Pearce bomb out of the air for the Knights second try just three minutes later, with the margin 12-0 after just eight minutes.

Errors from Hunt and Norman saw the Knights shoot further ahead, with Guerra breezing by Norman at the other end to post his side's third try and extend the lead to 18-0.

Daniel Saifiti's try three minutes later was even softer, the NSW prop brushing through some flimsy defence to score under the black dot for a 24-0 lead after as many minutes.

The Dragons finally showed some fight through Zac Lomax, who dragged four defenders across to score from close range five minutes before the break.

His conversion from out wide brought the gap back to 18, though the Knights were straight back on the attack when young-gun Cody Ramsey spilled the kickoff.

Enari Tuala strolled through a gaping hole on the Dragons right edge three rucks later to re-take all the momentum on the stroke of halftime.

Jacob Saifiti barged over in almost identical fashion to his brother in the first half to post the first of try of the second half in the 51^st minute.

Ramsey saved a try and laid one on for Norman in the space of minutes to bring the score back to 36-12 but Tuala hit back with his second nine minutes from time.

Lomax grabbed a consolation try off a Norman bomb before time was up, but it did little to mediate the insult on a forgettable night.