The former Origin forward was officially granted permission to resume his career after sexual assault charges were dropped in court on Friday.

The Dragons were without de Belin for the Indigenous Round clash with Wests, his comeback to commence in reserve grade on Saturday afternoon.

Read more: Dragons have always kept the faith in Jack de Belin, now he must repay it

For many St George Illawarra fans, an NRL return can't come quick enough after a lacklustre display from the top squad at Bankwest Stadium.

Anthony Griffin's side was never in the contest, ultimately going down 34-18 in front of 9,982 fans. It was their six loss in their last seven matches.

The coach was disappointed with the showing, however he refused to label the past two days a distraction.

"The de Belin thing's always been there, we just clearly didn't play well enough tonight," Griffin said.

"We just put ourselves on the back foot, we've been dong it for a few weeks.

"We come up against a polished Tigers side, their attack was clinical and they picked us apart. It's very disappointing."

The Dragons were sloppy from the outset, making six errors and conceding five set restarts as the Tigers ran rampant through the middle of the field in the first half.

Wests held 58% of possession in the opening 40, running for 1027 metres compared to St George Illawarra's 595m.

Former Dragons forward Luciano Leilua had 104m and threatened to break through each time he touched the ball.

It was a Leilua run that set the platform for Wests' first try, James Roberts opening the scoring in the 15^th minute.

David Nofoaluma extended the lead on the opposite side of the field, St George Illawarra made to pay after they failed to defuse a Luke Brooks bomb.

The Dragons were left shellshocked just moments later, Brooks making the most of an extra man down the short side to set up Daine Laurie. Suddenly it was 18-0 after 28 minutes.

St George Illawarra had chances to hit back late in the first half, however they were left to rue poor execution and ineffective last-tackle options.

"We never put the Tigers under any real pressure in the first half at all," Griffin said.

"Defensively, the possession toll just told in the end. They were good enough to put us away with back to back tries. It went from 6 to 18 real quickly, it was always going to be hard from there."

Brayden Wiliame looked to have given his team a sniff three minutes after the break, pouncing on a loose ball in the end goal to cut the deficit to 12.

The Dragons threatened to narrow the gap even further, however errors continued to cripple their chances, a Daniel Alvaro knock on proving a turning point.

The Tigers took back control of the match with three tries in the space of 10 minutes to secure the win.

St George Illawarra mounted a late comeback with tries to Ben Hunt and Talatao Amone however it was a case of too little, too late.