Falco (played by Keanu Reeves) led the fictional Washington Sentinels to two key wins en route to the playoffs during an NFL player strike in the beloved 2000 sports flick The Replacements.

Currently in seventh spot on the ladder, the Dragons are facing a comparable task to stay in the top-eight with 13 top players rubbed out through suspension following Saturday's disastrous lockdown-defying barbecue at Paul Vaughan's Shellharbour home.

Test prop Vaughan had his contract torn up on Tuesday, while the club has topped up the more than $300,000 in fines issued by the NRL to 13 players who attended the do.

As a repeat offender, Vaughan was hit with an eight-week suspension, leading to his sacking, while Blake Lawrie, Corey Norman, Daniel Alvaro, Jack Bird, Josh Kerr, Josh McGuire, Kaide Ellis, Matt Dufty, Tyrell Fuimaono, Zac Lomax, Jack de Belin and Gerard Beale all received one-game bans.

With winger Mikaele Ravalawa suspended for another three weeks, and Max Feagai still nursing the effects of concussion suffered in round eight, it leaves the Dragons with just 16 of its 31 players in the bubble not subject to injury or suspension. It includes development players Junior Amone and Tyrell Sloan, who've debuted in the NRL this season, and young forward Hayden Lomax.

In issuing the sanctions, the NRL has stipulated the Dragons have a minimum of two, and maximum of three games to spread the individual suspensions over. It's an unprecedented challenge for any NRL coach, with Griffin's task complicated by the restrictions that leave Beale and Jaiyden Hunt the only two players outside the club's top 30 currently in the Dragons bubble.

Griffin will need to name at least five of the suspended players in his 21-man squad for next Friday's clash with Manly at Brookvale that may or may not see Ben Hunt and Tariq Sims back up less than 48 hours after next Wednesday's Origin III dead-rubber in Newcastle.

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Griffin also faces a must-win game against the Titans at Kogarah a week later ahead of clash with the third-placed Rabbitohs in Wollongong in round 20. It's understood the NRL will vet team selections to ensure any side is passable for a first grade game.

If there is a silver lining to the drama, it's the ability to speed-up a long-term roster overhaul. Sacking Vaughan, who had taken up a player option on the final year of his deal in 2022, frees up $800,000, with the club having already made the call not to renew the deals of Norman, Dufty and injured skipper Cam McInnes.

De Belin is the only player to have been upgraded in that time, with other recruits Bird, Andrew McCullough and McGuire's deals subsidised by former clubs to a collective tune of $1 million.

Queensland Origin forwards Frank Molo and, reportedly, Jaydn Su'a are set to join the club next year, with George Burgess another star reportedly on the verge of signing with the club.

The Dragons have been a suitor for Storm veteran Dale Finucane who remains the most highly-sought middle forward on the open market. .

It's unlikely Molo or Su'a will expedite their moves to Wollongong, but the Dragons have been linked to Warriors forward Jamayne Taunoa-Brown on an on-loan basis.