Dragons earn fightback win over Panthers

Both teams had attacking chances early which were marred by ill-timed handling problems despite the rain that had come earlier in the day noticeably subsiding.

The hosts went close to snagging the opening try of the evening a quarter of the way in off a Jack Cole kick only for a late error to prevent it.

They also lost their captain’s challenge in the process with the Dragons taking the ball back out to the 20-metre line for a restart.

Jesse Marschke was placed on report soon after for a high tackle that put the Panthers back on the attack with Paul Alamoti powering his way over for the encounter’s first points down the left corridor off the back of it.

The centre was unable to convert his own try with the ball cannoning off the left upright and out as the score remained 4-0.

The Panthers managed to strike again just shy of the break via winger Jesse McLean who took in a Cole bomb to dive over in the left corner and make it 10-0.

A Sione Finau line break off the second half kick-off gave the visitors a rare attacking opportunity with Moses Suli halted just shy of the chalk on the last tackle.

Back-to-back set restarts put the Dragons straight back on the front foot with Toby Couchman muscling his way over back against the grain off the back of it for a phenomenal, solo four-pointer in his first NRL appearance of the season.

Kyle Flanagan kicked his first goal as a Dragon from in right in front to cut the deficit to four.

The Dragons’ second came just moments later through Tyrell Sloan who glided through to pounce on a Marschke grubber to the right of the uprights with Flanagan knocking over the extras to give the visitors their first lead of the evening.

Mitch Kenny was taken from the field in the aftermath of the try for a HIA – which he passed – with debutant Trent Toelau taking charge of hooking duties.

Marschke charged into the backfield to wrestle momentum back the way of the visitors entering the final 10 with Mathew Feagai forcing his way over in the left corner off the back of it thanks to a pristine Luciano Leilua cut-out.

Flanagan’s conversion attempt smacked into the left goalpost and out as the lead remained at 16-10.

The Dragons fired in a successful captain’s challenge moments later to win back possession with Raymond Faitala-Mariner storming through off a savvy Marschke short ball to slam the ball down for his first try in almost four years.

Flanagan slotted the conversion to improve the Dragons’ lead to a dozen as Shane Flanagan’s men held on for their sixth win of the season.