Remarkably, it's where they sit after toppling the Eels, who came into the match riding an undefeated start to the season and full of confidence on their own patch.

The rest of us will quite rightly take some more convincing to believe they can stay there but, after stringing together four straight wins for the first time since 2019, Bird seems more on the money than those who thought avoiding the wooden spoon would be a win in Anthony Griffin's first year in charge.

While the Cowboys and Sea Eagles are in the thick of the battle to avoid the wooden spoon, and Newcastle endured horror afternoon on the injury front last week, there was no asterisk on this one; especially when you consider skipper and No. 7 Ben Hunt was watching from the sideline.

They may well be exceeding outside expectations, even those of their own fans, but Griffin's standards remain higher.

"I can feel in our dressing shed that the players are getting what they deserve, they're working really hard and they're getting some results from it," Griffin said.

"It's five rounds [in], I don't care where we are, where we should be or who thought we should be where. We've just got a team that's wanting to win football games.

"We're not playing as well as you'd like all the time but sometimes, particularly early in the year, you don't have to. You need to get the basics right defensively and we did that for long periods tonight.

"We shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times in that second half but defensively they got it right and in the first half our attack was the best it's been. We only had one error and we were really clinical with the ball but we still haven't put two halves together.

"Early in the season putting one half together is sometimes enough but, if we want to be a complete football team, we need to be able to do that for 80 minutes."

The Dragons were near faultless in the first half, completing 19 of 21 sets with Matt Dufty throwing the final pass for tries to Bird and Mikaele Ravalawa.

He also grabbed a four-pointer of his own, a penalty try after he was felled by Nathan Brown in pursuit of his own grubber.

It went to an 18-0 lead at halftime, shocking a large and parochial home crowd at a ground they've made a fortress.

The visitors even survived the loss of Tariq Sims to the sin-bin early in the second half, conceding just the one try to Isaiah Papali'i.

They repelled countless other raids before respite came in a penalty goal to Zac Lomax that gave them a 14-point cushion with 23 minutes left before Dufty's second try 10 minutes from time sealed the deal.

It wasn't without some controversy, with the Eels left filthy when Clint Gutherson crossed following a break from Dylan Brown only to have it taken off him by a belated bunker call in what proved the hosts last real chance at a comeback. Gutherson did get across with three minutes left, but it was little consolation.

It leaves the Dragons aiming for five wins in a row for the first time since 2018 when they host the Warriors at Kogarah on Sunday.

Bird crossed first for the opening four-pointer, finishing off a beautiful string of passing from Norman and Dufty just eight minutes in. Lomax converted for a 6-0 lead.

The Dragons extended when Dufty split the defence off an inside ball from Clune and put the ball on the toe. He was at Winx-like odds to reel it in before he was felled by Nathan Brown. It was referred to the bunker who awarded a penalty try, with Lomax converting from in front for a 12-0 lead.

Dufty was in the action again with a pinpoint long ball that put Ravalawa away down the eastern touchline for his side's third try. Lomax nailed the sideline conversion for an 18-0 lead six minutes before the break.

The Eels started the second stanza full of running, with Sims sin-binned for repeat infringements and Isaiah Papali'i crossing from the next set to quickly cut the margin back to 12.

Gutherson's disallowed try was as close as the Eels got, with Dufty sealing the deal minutes later with his second try. Gutherson's late four-pointer troubled no one but the scorers.