Dragons fall to depleted Sea Eagles after limp second-half display

The Sea Eagles looked every bit a side missing Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic for large stretches of the first half, but the star duo were barely missed in the second as Des Hasler's side ran in three straight tries to snatch momentum and the game.

With the clout missing from the opposition, it was a must-win for the seventh-placed Dragons, who now sit two wins behind the Sea Eagles in sixth and risk dropping out of the eight on percentage by the end of the round.

With mass suspensions draining the club's depth, Anthony Griffin was forced into having Origin duo Ben Hunt and Tariq Sims back up, but it wasn't enough keep the Dragons in the clash for more than 40 minutes.

After a strong start, Griffin's side finished with 45 missed tackles to their opposition's 13, while nine of its 14 errors came in the second 40 minutes.

Matt Dufty and Tyrell Fuimaono were sitting out suspended, while Zac Lomax and Daniel Alvaro remain in quarantine after refusing to sign a sworn statement over the infamous Shellharbour house party that now looks certain to derail their campaign.

"We put ourselves in a position to win that game and the first 10 minutes of the second half was disastrous for us defensively," Griffin said.

"I thought we were on top at halftime and we went out and all of a sudden we were down by 10. We'd done enough to give ourselves a chance to win, I thought it was more us not being where we need to be with our execution in attack and our one-on-one tackles.

"Our missed tackles were atrocious, we had over 40, so we had some really simple missed tackles. The first try, the one [Cade] Cust scored in the second half, there's 12 points there they didn't have to earn.

"In the middle of that second half we had two or three chances to get out of our own end and turned the ball over in our own 20 and you're going to pay a price when you do that.

"It felt like there was a lot of energy there but we looked like a team coming off the bye and hadn't played a lot of footy in the last month. I thought we fought really hard for the 80 minutes even though we didn't play that well, but they were too good tonight and we were poor in a lot of areas."

It'll only get tougher, with the likes of Jack Bird, Jack de Belin, Corey Norman, Josh McGuire and Josh Kerr still needing to sit out one of the next three games.

They could well be joined by Poasa Faamausili after he was placed on report for a crusher tackle in the second half, while Brayden Wiliame - who did not attend the now infamous shindig - failed to finish the first half after suffering a groin injury.

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Young-gun Tyrell Sloan made the most of his opportunity deputising for Dufty, scoring the first try and laying on Gerard Beale's consolation four-pointer with eight minutes left, but it was a mere glimmer in an otherwise forgettable outing for his side.

The 19-year-old also ended up on report for a high shot on Reuben Garrick in the set following his try.

Griffin will mercifully have four days before naming his squad for next Sunday's clash with Gold Coast. With a tough task in the Rabbitohs waiting on the other side of it, the Dragons could well be playing for their season against the Titans.

Sloan was hammered taking a Keiran Foran bomb on his own line and earned the ultimate reward three rucks later as Hunt created space for Bird on the right edge. The young fullback backed up on the inside and blew past Garrick like the Sea Eagles fullback was tied to a post.

Bird converted for a 6-0 lead after as many minutes.

Sloan stayed in the thick of it, whacking Garrick around the chops and giving away a penalty that saw the Eagles marched up the park.

They made the Dragons pay, with Morgan Harper the beneficiary of an offload from Haumole Olakau'atu to post his side's first four-pointer. Garrick converted to square the ledger after 14 minutes.

Olakau'atu did it all himself from close range five minutes later after another high shot, this time from Jackson Ford, piggybacked the Eagles up the field. His barnstorming effort was converted by Garrick for a six-point cushion.

McGuire didn't have to work much harder for his try on his second touch after being injected from the bench, charging onto a short-ball from Andrew McCullough to force his way over for the leveller.

Bird's conversion again levelled the scores and he put his side back in front in pulling down a bomb from Hunt and earning a penalty. He knocked it over to re-take the lead by a slender two-point margin eight minutes before the break.

The Sea Eagles struck first just two minutes after the resumption, with Josh Schuster starting and finishing a left edge raid to put the ball in Foran's hands for the first try of the second stanza.

Cade Cust followed up five minutes later with a close-range effort, keeping barely a fingernail on the ball, but enough to grab the second try of the half.

Garrick maintained his perfect night off the tee to put his side up by 10, with Faamausili placed on report in the ensuing set and putting his side straight back on its own line.

Foran put Brad Parker's 58th minute try on a platter with a deft short-ball, putting the game to bed with a quarter of the match remaining.

Hunt combined with Sloan to lay on Beale's late try but it was little consolation for Griffin after a nightmare fortnight.