Forget a game of two halves, this was a game of two stars in Roosters pair James Tedesco and Sam Walker.
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One is at his absolute peak, while the other is quite scarily not even nudging it. Combined, it was more than enough for the Roosters to see off the Dragons 40-22 on Sunday.
Tedesco had three try-assists, three line breaks, two line break assists, a forced restart and 191 run metres... at half-time.
He'd have had a four-pointer of his own were it not for a brilliant grassing effort from his opposite Matt Dufty early in the opening stanza.
Tedesco even had a hand in the Dragons only first-half try, stripping Dufty in the act of scoring and allowing Josh Maguire to swoop on the scraps to cut a 14-0 deficit back to eight on the stroke of half-time.
Having had little footy, and almost none of the running, the effort through 40 was encouraging for coach Anthony Griffin.
Two tries in 11 minutes, and a 16-14 lead, courtesy of some Zac Lomax brilliance early in the second half put even more wind in the sails.
In the end, it was the Roosters who breezed home, grabbing four tries in 12 minutes to turn a fierce contest into a stroll to the finish.
With finals looming, Roosters coach Trent Robinson took a load management approach on rookie sensation Walker, leaving him on the bench for the first 42 minutes.
His injection became the telling moment of the second half, with the Rookie of the Year favourite laying on a try and scoring another in a 12-minute burst that turned a two-point deficit into a 14-point lead.
It rendered what was the Dragons best effort in a number of months utterly moot.
By full-time it was the same old story, with errors at their own end of the park and a whopping 44 missed tackles seeing them slump to a sixth straight defeat, with just four wins in their past 17 outings.
"To come back from 14-0 down and lead 16-14 was an enormous effort but the Roosters just surged a bit after that," Griffin said.
"We played long periods without the ball then and just couldn't go with them. The start we had, it was always going to drain the juice out of you when you have to do that much defence early.
"We needed to finish the game with the ball in our hands, or at least an even share. That didn't happen.
"They went up a gear to their credit and put a lot of pressure on us, we coughed up a couple of balls at our own end and, unfortunately, it got away from us.
"It's a shame, I don't think our guys deserved that scoreline. I thought they did a great job to get themselves back in the contest but the Roosters were too good."
Flashes of potential from the likes of Talatau Amone, Jayden Sullivan and Mat Feagai - and a brilliant 11-minute cameo from Lomax - were a silver lining with a view to next season which is where thoughts have already turned despite two games remaining in the regular season.
"Today, at 16-14, we had our destiny in our own hands and we needed to finish that game off," Griffin said.
"It was a really good contest up until 20 [minutes] to go but they were too strong. What the [finals] miracles or equations are now I'm not too concerned about.
"We'll just dust ourselves off and get ready to go up to Rockhampton next Saturday and play the Cowboys."
Amone, Kaide Ellis and Dufty all produced try-savers early, while the latter looked certain to make it a 12-point turnaround at the other end as he loomed in support of a runaway Mikaele Ravalawa only for the final pass to be quite rightly called forward.
It told quickly, with Tedesco splitting the Dragons through the middle and finding Egan Butcher in support for the opening try under the posts.
Tedesco dished up another try with a lofted ball for Copley one ruck after Lachlan Lam broke the Dragons left edge open from inside his own half.
Siosiua Taukeiaho's attempted conversion from the sideline was waved away, keeping the score at 10-0 after 19 minutes.
Tedesco forced a repeat set with a deft grubber and had his third try-assist in the ensuing set, putting Sitili Tupouniua over on the left edge, missing the conversion from the sideline the only first-half evidence that he was in fact human.
The Dragons finally hit back with some long-awaited good fortune, with Tedesco stripping Dufty to prevent a try only for Maguire to swoop on the scraps for his side's first try.
Lomax produced a brilliant flick pass to Ravalawa away down the right flank for the opening try of the second half, adding the extras from the sideline to bring the deficit back to four.
He put his side ahead a set later when he streaked into the clear off a quick 20-metre tap from Bird, with Feagai looming in support for his side's second try in the space of three minutes.
A boil-over looked well and truly on the cards until Walker grabbed the interchange card.
He made an immediate impact with a seemingly impossible catch-and-pass on a short side for Daniel Tupou to cross and re-take the lead.
Tupou snatched his second out of the hands of Ravalawa five minutes later, grounding a Drew Hutchison bomb, with Taukeiaho's conversion pushing the margin back beyond a converted try.
Walker jinked across five minutes later, with halves partner Hutchison following up to complete a 16-point game-sealing blitz.
Sullivan bagged his first NRL try as a consolation chip with five minutes left before Tupou completed his hat-trick in the shadows of full-time.
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Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
