Coach Paul McGregor has promised a more adventurous approach in attack this season but their was little evidence of that in the  32-14 loss to the Rabbitohs in which they were held scoreless for all but the final minute of the second half.

It leaves them 1-1 in their preseason trials after defeating Wests Tigers in Wollongong last weekend but fans would have expected more from a line-up that featured Gareth Widdop, Josh Dugan, Tyson Frizell and Paul Vaugahn in their first appearances of 2017.

It will no doubt turn up the heat on the under pressure coach just 12 days out from the start of the 2017 season proper but McGregor certainly wasn’t panicking after the result.

“It was a good hit-out for a final trial,” McGregor said.

“There’s some good learnings to take out of it and we gave everyone a good opportunity to play some footy. There was some good and bad in it. 

“You don’t like a performance when you get beaten by that scoreline but it was about giving people an opportunity.

“We left a few guys out there for longer minutes, we didn’t rotate our middle every 15 minutes we held them out there for long periods of time to give them good footy.

“Our cohesion will pick up because that’s the first time that group has played together.

“We created a few opportunities we just didn’t finish them off at times.

“That’ll pick up in the next couple of weeks. It was Gaz’s first hit-out, Duges’ first hit-out so all that’s positive.

“I think defensively is where we really need to improve from this game.

“Our goal-line d needs improvement. A couple of tries there were certainly stoppable.”

In contrast to previous seasons, both coaches named near full-strength sides for the annual fixture and Michael Maguire got a good return from his big guns with Robbie Farah and Adam Reynolds both playing starring roles.

Farah dummied his way across from close range in the 10th minute and the Rabbitohs led 10-0 when Alex Johnson cross untouched from a scrum win. 

Russell Packer crossed from close range to cut the margin back to four before Siosifa Talaki’s try just minutes later gave Souths a 10-point cushion.

Tom Burgess invited the Dragons to hit back quickly with a knock-on from the ensuing kickoff with Josh Dugan producing a miraculous round the corner pass to McDonald across on the right flank and cut the margin back to six at the interval.

Damien Cook made his presence felt after the break with an incisive run and  banana kick for first of two second half tries for rookie Braidon Burns while Angus Chrichton also got across as the the lead ballooned to 22 with 11 minutes to play.

Jason Nightingale’s 79th minute four-pointer saved the Dragons from turning in an empty second-half sheet but it came too late to have a bearing on the result.