The Warriors, headlined by Milton-Ulladulla's Jack Murchie who was making his club debut, had been forced to leave their homeland - camped in Tamworth and then Terrigal just to reach the point of a season restart, as well as suffering crucial injuries like the loss of former St George Illawarra player-of-the-year Leeson Ah Mau along the way - and were still wonderful.

They completed 44 consecutive sets in a dominant 18-nil victory.

It took until the 75^th minute for them to make a handling error, coming from Group Seven product Murchie with a loose carry, who had left the Raiders to answer the Warriors' player crisis.

In contrast, the Dragons, a side featuring Gerringong brother Tariq and Korbin Sims, were woeful.

Already under significant scrutiny and fan backlash after last year's disastrous campaign, coach Paul McGregor's future as coach is now under significant pressure.

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Josh Kerr had lost the ball close to the line, but the only genuine try-scoring chance for the Dragons came in the dying moments, when winger Mikaele Ravalawa was stripped one-on-one after taking a cut-out pass from Matt Dufty with room to move.

The Warriors near perfect ball-handling and relentless running in a new ruck rule environment, where the ball stays in play for long periods of time, simply left St George Illawarra suffocated and without a response.

"We were all disappointed we started our first two games, and there were a lot of things we needed to fix up and I thought we did that really well this week," Warriors fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck said.

The Warriors earned their success.

The questions about the Dragons are damning.

"We talked about it all week that they're going to be hungry to win," halfback Ben Hunt told Fox Sports about the Warriors.

"Considering what they've sacrificed to be over here, they're going to come out firing and we wanted to come out and match that, but they just seemed to get it over us."

They were caught on the last tackle on multiple occasions, looked directionless at times in attack and after waiting for more than two months to answer their critics - after an abysmal 2018 season and 0-2 prior to the COVID shutdown - offered absolutely no answers.

Before half-time, second-rower Eliesa Katoa, who was among the Warriors best, and veteran forward Adam Blair, were off with head injury assessments, both cleared.

Centre Peta Hiku didn't return from a shoulder problem.

Still the Dragons offered little resistance.

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It took the Warriors just six minutes to convert their dedication to the competition to points, when Jamayne Taunoa-Brown gathered up fullback Matt Dufty's dropped bomb on his line in the sixth minute to score.

They made it 12-nil in the 23^rd minute when Katoa cracked the Dragons right-edge defence to crash over.

It was everything the Warriors deserved, as the Dragons looked disorganised in attack and conceded ruck infringement six-again calls, during a first half where they were tackled on the last on a number of occasions.

Five-eighth Kodi Nikorima added to the Dragons' pain, following up his earlier break to score in the 53^rd minute.

Hunt limped throughout the second half after sustaining a cork during play, but the scrutiny over his role as the marquee halfback is already in question.

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"I got a cork down in the lower part of my calf and it just stiffened my whole ankle up," Hunt said.

"I couldn't really bend my foot, so it was a bit tough in the second half.

"It'll be all good for next week.

"We need to go and look at the mistakes we made, how we can get better and adapt to how the game's played now. We need to look at that and do what we can."

The Dragons are 0-3 now, their finals hopes in a shortened season looking grim.