NRL: Five things we learned from the Dragons loss to the Sharks

The conditions possibly exacerbated the rage. Positives were impossible to find with their side down 14-0 at halftime, but coach Anthony Griffin found some by the end of 80 minutes.

It wasn't easiest of tasks, but they are there if you look at five things we learned from the 32-18 loss to the Sharks.

Ball control must improve.

Ya think? Yeah, it is a rugby league truism, but it goes doubly, no triply, for the Dragons. A quick look at the roster reveals they simply don't have the attacking arsenal to win games without it.

They completed just 24 of 34 sets and made 15 errors. Matt Dufty scored one of those brilliant tries he has a knack of producing, but made five of his side's 15 errors.

It's the type of in-game inconsistency that explains the club's reticence to rubber stamp any extension until Griffin's seen a bit more from his enigmatic No. 1.

"He's got to clean up those errors at the back, that's obvious," Griffin said.

"In his positional play and the way he went after the game in attack and defence, he came up with a reasonable effort, but we've got to clean up those errors there.

"He's never had any problem scoring tries, it's the other side of his game he's got to work hard at. I'm not doubting him, I'm just saying that's a step he's got to take."

Captaincy agrees with Ben Hunt.

The predictable chorus of knockers took to social media to slam their favourite punching bag in the aftermath but - barring the in-goal howler that led to the Sharks first try - the skipper was probably the Dragons best.

He had assists on two of his side's three tries and ran the footy 15 times for 119 metres - nothing to sneeze at for a No. 7. He was also leading line-speed in defence and made 23 tackles.

Plenty of people quite reasonably questioned if the captaincy was something he really needed. It's a long season, but it certainly seemed to draw a notch more effort from him on Sunday.

"As a team tonight we played a bit better in the second half and [the first half] was more on me," Hunt said.

"In wet weather footy, if you give anyone a bit of of a lead it's going to be hard to reel in. They played the conditions better in the first half, got a couple of tries, and we just made too many errors.

"I do think there is some positives in the game. I tried to step up a bit more in the second half and play a bit more footy. That's what we need to do from the kickoff.

"I need to take a bit more control. I think I did that in the second half so it's going the right way."

Kicking game still an issue.

It's a become a perennial beef, but the Dragons were really lacking in the tactical kicking department. Kick metres aren't always a reliable indication of how a game has played out, but it's telling in wet conditions.

For one, a huge disparity in kick metres points the same thing in terms of completions and the Sharks kicked for almost double the metres of the Dragons. They also forced three line dropouts in the first half.

Read more: Bunker controversy as Dragons outgunned by Sharks

Hunt laid on a try with a kick, but over the 80 minutes, it left a lot to be desired. Especially when you consider point No. 1, it has to improve.

Spine a work in progress.

It's strange to say when you look at the numbers. Should Corey Norman return as expected against the Cowboys on Saturday, the spine will boast more than 800 first grade games.

Still, Andrew McCullough only arrived in Wollongong three weeks before the start of the season, while Ben Hunt played just five games in the No. 7 last season.

"It's still growing, I thought we were a lot better in the second half," Hunt said.

"I think we played a bit safe in the first half because we made a couple of [early] errors. Safe's the best word for it, we didn't really try and play too much footy. In the second half we changed it up a little bit and we got a bit of reward for it.

"[McCullough's] only been here for a little bit, Cluney jumped in and we'd only had a couple of weeks training. I'd been with Normy all preseason, but that's no excuse. We're all NRL players and we need to turn up."

Having gone a long stretch without finding top form, Norman is under pressure being off contract, coming back from off-field drama. Griffin wasn't locking Norman in post-game, though you'd expect him to be back.

It'll take some patience but Dragons fans rightly be filthy if they end up waiting for a train that never arrives.

Put your hard hat on Hook.

It was tongue in cheek, but Griffin made a telling remark when asked about the wrath of success-starved Dragons fans and whether he could feature on banners like 'Down with Brown', 'The Price is Wrong' or 'Fail Mary'.

Some of it even started before halftime on Sunday and you could just picture fans in their garage painting up 'Hook Hook' banners.

"You're making these Dragons fans sound real bad, every time I do an interview they talk about these Dragons fans," Griffin said.

"There's no such thing as an honourable loss at this level and I wouldn't want the fans to be content with that either. What I am content with is we had 17 guys there that went above and beyond what they had to do at times to play for each other.

"We'll keep building in that and fix up what we need to fix up but it's a marathon, not a sprint. If we keep building our team and getting the best out our team... when we earn [respect] we'll start getting a reward for it."

Griffin may still think he'll never cop more scrutiny than he did in a league-mad one-team city in Brisbane.

Hunt once said the same thing, though he has a different opinion these days. It remains to be seen whether Griffin's opinion will also change but you'd like to think he'd a grace period of more than, you know... a single game.