On a night where Dragons coach Anthony Griffin tinkered with his own halves combination, Moses and Brown showed why many think Brad Arthur is truly onto a winner this season.

All told, Moses finished with a double, Brown grabbed the opening try, while they combined to create three others and look several classes above their opposition.

The Dragons had produced stunning upsets in their last two trips to CommBank Stadium, a gritty win in round five last year and a memorable send-off for outgoing coach Paul McGregor in 2020.

They looked capable of pulling off another when they drew within four points on the stroke of halftime, but a four-try blitz from the hosts in the 20 minutes after the break quickly put paid to any fightback.

From there, it was all the Dragons could do to hold onto respectability.

Griffin pulled something of a surprise in the lead-up, confirming earlier reports in dropping young gun Tyrell Sloan in favour of Moses Mbye.

Mbye had played exclusively at dummy-half in his previous three outings for the Dragons but the return of Andrew McCullough from an elbow injury prompted Griffin to shift the veteran utility to the back.

It was a move labelled "insanity" by Fox Sports' Matthew Johns in the aftermath, though any No. 1 would have struggled in the face of the barrage the Eels delivered.

Talatau Amone was also shifted to the bench, with Jack Bird starting at five-eighth after finishing last week's loss to Cronulla in the halves.

"We'd struggled the last couple of games [against] Penrith and Cronulla and, with young guys, sometimes you just need to get them out of there," Griffin said post-game.

"It's not a long-term thing. I've got some good depth in our squad, we just need to get a bit of stability there. For the first 40 minutes tonight we had that in both attack and defence.

"Those young guys are a big part of our club it's just sometimes, if they're a little low on confidence, which they were after that Cronulla game, you've got to help them rather than leave them there.

"We trained all week in that shape with Mbye and Bird. Bird was a little bit scrappy here and there, but I thought they gave us something.

"We were too impatient, but we were a lot more dangerous in attack despite the score-line. We'll need to have to have a good look at that second half and we'll decide [whether we persevere with it]."

Off-contract and back in negotiations with the Dragons, Bird provided a timely reminder of his qualities as a genuine difference-maker, combining with Ben Hunt for his side's first try.

It gave the Dragons a sniff and all the momentum heading into the break, but it's where the resistance ended, resigning Griffin to a third loss on the bounce.

"They blew us away in the second half," Griffin conceded.

"I thought we were on top by the time we came in at halftime. We'd done an enormous job defending our own line and we were a bit unlucky not to be in front at halftime.

"In the second half we started poor and, to their credit, they were really good. Every time they got an opportunity they made us pay.

"We just lost a lot of big moments there. They really surged at us and rolled our ruck and when they're in that mood they're a really tough team to defend.

"The score-line isn't acceptable. We'll take some things out of that first 40 minutes ,but we've got to learn our lesson and move on."

With clashes against the Rabbitohs, Knights and Roosters looming, they face an uphill battle to re-enter the winner's circle following their lone win over the Warriors in round one.

Brown caught Mbye in the line as he sliced through off his left foot for first points, while Moses produced a beautifully placed kick for himself in the scramble that followed a second break from Brown 10 minutes later.

Throw in a well-placed 40-20 from Reed Mahoney and the well-oiled Eels looked to be giving the Dragons all they could handle.

Things shifted dramatically from there, with Hunt the beneficiary of a deft off-load from Francis Molo to race into the clear and kick ahead for Bird to finish just six minutes before halftime.

Hunt was probing again off a tip-on from Aaron Woods, with the Eels pinged in front of their own posts moments before the halftime siren. Lomax landed the penalty goal to cut the margin to four at the main break.

It was all the Eels from there, with Nathan Brown capitalising on a fortuitous bounce off a Dylan Brown grubber just three minutes into the second stanza.

The hosts went further ahead when Moses produced another deft kick, this time for Mahoney to score under the posts and push the margin to 16.

Will Penisini burned his opposite Moses Suli in the ensuing set, finding Gutherson in support as the margin ballooned to 22 in the blink of an eye.

Waqa Blake twisted the knife with an intercept and 90-metre dash for his side's sixth four pointer. He completed a double eight minutes later before Tariq Sims grabbed a consolation try nine minutes from time.

Moses had his second courtesy of a freakish flick pass from Bryce Cartwright five minutes from fulltime as an exclamation point on the performance.

In further headaches, Molo and Blake Lawrie also finished up on report to cap a forgettable night for the red v faithful.

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