Sloan nabs hat-trick as Dragons kickstart Flanagan era in style

After a defensively gritty opening half, the Dragons ran in four second-half tries to notch their first win under Flanagan, and the club's first away win since round 24, 2022.

While his task remains a rebuild, Flanagan has been quick quash any talk of five-year plans and, on the performance at both ends of the park on Saturday, there's no reason to think he can't take the club to the finals in his first-year in charge.

Much like an impressive trial win over the Tigers a fortnight ago, it wasn't the scoreline or opposition that can give hope to the long-suffering Red V faithful, but the manner of the victory.

Their side conceded a lone try via a grubber minutes before halftime, but didn't concede again despite having the game well in hand with more than a quarter of the contest to go.

It's too early to label Flanagan a miracle worker, but there's no question this was a statement win to set in motion what the returning head coach has dubbed the new 'Dragons Way' this season.

His only first half error proved momentarily costly, but a three-try first outing will no doubt be a confidence-booster for the oft-maligned 21-year-old.

The Dapto product had his first try just two minutes in off an offload from Raymond Faitala-Mariner, and had his second in support of a Jacob Liddle break 14 minutes into the second stanza.

He grabbed his third running a slick line off Ben Hunt 14 minutes from time to begin what many consider a pivotal career campaign despite his tender years in style.

The tries in support play were his bread-and-butter efforts, but the Dapto product also defused four of five kicks received, and also made 10 tackles with just the one miss.

Flanagan did not hold back on his public criticism of his fullback's 'soft moments' following his side's loss in the Charity Shield, but the conversations in private appear to have had a different tone given what the enigmatic No. 1 has produced since.

"From the start of the preseason he just backed me," Sloan said post-match.

"I had a pretty bad start there with my injury, I hurt my ankle in the Koori Knockout and it wasn't too good of a start.

"He just kept reminding me that he wants me to be the fullback and to just keep working hard over the little areas and just kept backing me.

"Flanno wants me to be a better defensive fullback and we had a big preseason there. It's something that me and Youngy (Dean Young) have been working very hard at.

I missed a lot of [preseason], but there was a lot of work being done and it's just the start, hopefully we can continue to do it throughout the year.

"We held them to four or six points so it was just great defence from our team. That's just our DNA now and that's the start of it."

Zac Lomax and where he plays has been the major talking point surrounding the Dragons, with whispers suggesting other clubs are circling should the 24-year-old want out of the final two years of his deal.

Flanagan has knocked that talk on the head and, if he is disgruntled, Lomax didn't play that way on Saturday night. The one-time NSW Origin hopeful grabbed a try courtesy of a Hunt grubber and almost had two others on kick reception.

More telling was the fact he ran for a whopping career-high 255 run metres in 24 carries, the bulk of it out of his own end where the entire Dragons back five displayed a ravenous appetite for work.

Moses Suli carried his strong trial form into round one, with a powerhouse display that saw him finish with a log of 190 run metres from a career-high 21 runs, while he also produced two classy kick defusals as the Titans looked for attacking joy off the boot.

After a strong start that saw Sloan cross just two minutes in, the Dragons were their own worst enemy for much of the opening stanza, making nine errors and completing just 13 of 17 sets.

Tom Weaver threaded through a grubber for the Titans first try to Alofiana Khan-Pereira after both Sloan and Ravalawa fumbled bombs from Tanah Boyd on consecutive kick receptioins, while Jack Bird also spilled the ball cold in his own end.

The Titans were a far tidier 23 of 24 to enjoy 73 per cent of the territory and 34 play-the-balls inside the Dragons 20-metre zone. That they produced just the one try via a kick amid that glut of possession was a tick for the Dragons new defensive resolve under Flanagan.

The Dragons also started the second half with consecutive errors, with Hunt reviving memories of his infamous 2015 grand final moment when he spilled the second-half kickoff cold, and Jaydn Su'A coughing it up on the first trip to the Titans end.

It did nothing to dent the momentum, with the visitors running in four second-half tries without conceding a four-pointer.

"With all the hard work you do in the preseason, you're always a bit unsure when you come in how it's going to go, so it's extremely pleasing," Hunt said. post-game.

"Especially in that first half, the amount of defence we did on our goal line, it's something we've worked extremely hard on. Dean Young's put in some good systems and we stuck to it.

"One of the most pleasing things is our resilience. We turned over a bit of ball in that first half, we made a few errors and last year we probably wouldn't let tries in then.

"To keep them out and to keep turning them away the way we did, I think it's very pleasing."

If Lomax was the major talking point around the Dragons, the Hunt-Kyle Flanagan dynamic was a close second.

The latter was impressive on Saturday night, linking regularly, and seamlessly, with Hunt on numerous occasions before slipping across for a try seven minutes after the break.

It was a strong start to a fresh start at a new club for a guy who's been on the rugby league roller coaster for the past several seasons.

"It's probably the most confident and safe I've felt in the team environment since I've been at the Roosters," Flanagan said.

"Having a guy like Benny Hunt playing alongside me makes my job a whole lot easier.

"He's my eyes off the back of shape. He's telling me when to run, who to hit, what lines to hit my ball players on.

"I saw the space and took it and it's obviously nice to get the monkey off the back nice and early in the season.

"All we've heard throughout the off season that people were writing us off so to come up here and get the win tonight is pretty special."