Gerard Sutton's seemingly trigger-happy call to dispatch Jackson in the 24th minute for being inside the 10, supposedly after an earlier warning, was widely panned but the Bulldogs subsequently ran in 26 unanswered points to notch just their second win of the season. Jake Averillo managed 20 of them, with tries either side of halftime and a handy 6/7 off the tee.

It was the Dogs biggest win since the corresponding clash last season that was the beginning of the end of former coach Paul McGregor's tenure and came amid confirmation the club will not be offering veteran five-eighth Corey Norman a new contract beyond this year.

It leaves him with Matt Dufty in the end-of-season departure lounge, though the Dragons may already be there as a force in 2021 based on Monday's capitulation. Those who made the call on Dufty may have found some vindication in his defensive misstep for Jeremy Marshall-King's 51st minute try, one of the softest four-pointers of the season, but it was little consolation on a forgettable afternoon.

Adam Elliott's try 12 minutes from time would also be in that final, perhaps the only thing softer than both four-pointers the slap from Andrew McCullough that saw Dogs prop Jack Hetherington 'felled' in front of the Dragons posts, a belated penalty call following replays allowing Averillo to extend his tally and the lead to 16 with 18 minutes left.

It left Dragons players fuming, but was barely an afterthought for coach Anthony Griffin who said in the lead-up that a 34-18 round-12 defeat to the Tigers was the only defeat he's been truly disappointed with this season. That has undoubtedly been knocked off its ignominious perch but Griffin said the early contract call on key players cannot be used as an excuse.

"It's more up the person you're telling themselves," Griffin said.

"I don't see any problem with that. It's business and people are signing contracts or going somewhere from one club to another. In the modern game that happens every week.

"We just had to make a decision on Corey. We gave it a lot of thought and I spoke to Corey last week and let him know he wouldn't be offered a contract. We've got some good young halves coming through, he understood and we move forward.

"It's a hard [decision], every one's a hard one, Matt Dufty was a hard decision to make. He's played for this club all his life but it's what we think is in the best interests of the club going forward to build a list that can bring us sustained success. They're not easy decisions."

The loss leaves them with just two wins in their last nine outings and weakens an already slender hold on a top eight spot, with Griffin blunt in his assessment of the effort.

"It wasn't good enough obviously. They were harder at the ball the whole night," Griffin said.

"They were on the front foot all night and that was the disappointing thing. "I thought we'd done well to be only down by two [at halftime] and if we could go out there hang in there and grab the ascendency we were a big chance of winning the football game but the first set they got they went down and scored.

"They were on the front foot then and we weren't strong enough to fight back into the game. We got ourselves in a reasonable position, we weathered that early storm and got the 6-2 [lead], but from then on it was all downhill. They're a good side... they've been building for a win and we helped them with that today.

"We had a good week at training, it's been a long turnaround, there's no excuse for what happened there today. It just wasn't to standard."

The visitors looked to have arrested a slow start whenNorman laid on the opening try for Brayden Wiliame in the 20^th minute they looked well in command of the clash when Jackson was dispatched four minutes later.

Read more: Dufty chat no distraction for Dragons

Instead, the call sparked the Dogs, with Averillo breezing through some flimsy Dragons defence for his side's first try. He added the extras to re-take the lead 8-6 11 minutes before the break.

Averillo streaked away for his second in the his side's first set of the second half, and added the extras, to bring his personal tally to 12 and the margin to eight. Marshall-King did it even easier 10 minutes later, strolling over under the posts from dummy-half.

Averillo's penalty goal following Hetherington's theatrics extended his personal tally and the lead to 16 with 18 minutes left. Adam Elliott put the result to bed four minutes later, leaving five defenders in his wake to barge across from close range to put the exclamation point on the win and sink the knife deeper into the Dragons.

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