Bright future but dim view of the present as Dragons slump to seventh straight loss

The Dragons generation next were on-song for most of the match, with rookie trio Talatau Amone, Jayden Sullivan and Tyrell Sloan scoring or having a hand in four of their side's five tries.

It showed the skill and swagger that delivered a host of junior honours for the Steelers, but the Dragons second-half capitulation showed all the traits that have marked the club's most recent seasons, certainly its current campaign that's been plagued by second-half fadeouts.

You couldn't describe the first 13 minutes of Saturday's second stanza any other way, with the Cowboys own impressive young class pouring on four tries in eight minutes to turn a 10-point deficit into a 12-point lead.

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They were never headed, claiming their first win in 11 games and extending the Dragons losing streak to seven, equalling the joint-venture's longest ever run of outs.

To say Dragons fans have mixed feelings about former coach Paul McGregor's tenure is an understatement, but he never lost eight games in a row. The Dragons dropped seven straight in McGregor's first year in charge in 2015, though it was ultimately en route to the finals.

Anthony Griffin won't get there this season, for just the second time in eight seasons as a head coach, and will now be looking to avoid making the unwanted history of eight straight defeats against the Rabbitohs next week.

"We needed to get that today, at halftime we were looking OK but, clearly, we threw that one away," Griffin said.

"We had the first five-six minutes of possession down their end [in the second half] and then we gave away an intercept on last play.

"They put together some decent attack coming out of their own end, but for a couple of sets there we were really poor and that paid.

"In the end there wasn't too much in it, a couple of intercepts to them and that period where they got three tries, unfortunately that killed us off."

If there was a single moment the long-suffering red v faithful can cling to through another off-season of soul-searching, it came in the 12th minute.

Trailing 6-0 after Reece Robson opened the scoring for the Cowboys, Amone put Sloan into space, with Sullivan in support to deliver a perfectly-weighted grubber for Zac Lomax to grab the Dragons first four-pointer.

It was the type of try the rookie trio have combined for in Steelers garb since their early teens and gave some look at what could be to come.

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Mikaele Ravalawa grabbed his side's second 23 minutes in before Sullivan, in a different jumper to the one he's destined to wear into the future, burrowed over 13 minutes before the break.

With halftime closing in, Amone shaped wide but produced a pinpoint kick back towards the posts where Sloan loomed for a try virtually on the siren for a 20-10 lead.

Had Mat Feagai not bounced a ball across the line midway through the first-half after receiving a neat cut-out ball from Sloan, the entire Steelers SG Ball class of 2019 would have featured on the sheet.

The performance was also peppered with the errors you'd expect from such a youthful crop, with Kyle Feldt scoring the Cowboys second after Amone put clearing kick out on the full.

"They were terrific," Griffin said.

"You see their natural ability and today will help them long-term. They came up with inexperience on a couple of plays that probably weren't the right plays at the right time.

"We also saw their natural ability and their brilliance. As much as that hurts today, it's a great experience for them and they'll learn from that."

The Dragons remained in full command at halftime, largely courtesy of two bone-rattling try-savers from Ravalawa, but the wheels fell off after the resumption.

With the Dragons peppering the Cowboys line, Ben Hampton took the odds to a tap-on from Tariq Sims and raced 90 metres for the first try of the second half against the run-of-play.

It was one-way traffic from there, with Tom Dearden putting Jeremiah Nanai into space and backing up on the inside to post his side's second try under the sticks in as many minutes.

Heilum Luki split the Dragons defence from deep inside his own end in the next set, shooting upfield and finding Jake Granville in support. He was grassed by the cover, but Luki followed up next carry to barge across.

Feldt plucked a Dearden bomb out of the Feagai's grasp next time up the park as the margin quickly ballooned to two converted tries.

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Ravalawa had his second courtesy of some clever lead-up work from Amone and Sloan to cut the margin back to six with Lomax's conversion, but it was as close as they got.

Feldt went close to the killer blow with three minutes left, but put his foot on the chalk to give the Dragons one last throw of the dice.

It came up rough, with Murray Tualagi swooping on a loose ball 10 metres out from his own line and finding a flying Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow for the coup de grace.

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