Dragons fall to Raiders in season finale

The contest could not have started stronger for the Red V with Zac Lomax going aerial in the opening set to reel in a Ben Hunt bomb and hit a supporting Tom Eisenhuth on the inside to score.

Lomax was able to knock over the conversion despite losing his footing to make it 6-0 early.

The Hunt-Lomax combination almost came up trumps a second time with the latter showing off some acrobatics to bat a cross-field Hunt kick in play and keep the hosts on the attack.

The Dragons found their second nine minutes in through a determined Jacob Liddle who took off out of dummy-half from 10 metres out, dummied, and muscled his way to the stripe.

Their hot start continued the following set with Liddle again wreaking havoc slicing his way into the backfield out of his own end before being brought down by Kaeo Weekes.

Jaydn Su’A steamed through to ground a Hunt grubber the following play and extend the hosts’ lead out to 18-0.

The visitors nabbed their first try soon after through Danny Levi who won the race to a Jamal Fogarty grubber off a Hudson Young break.

Jack de Belin was placed on report off the corresponding kick-off for a dangerous tackle on Joseph Tapine.

The Red V surge continued their next set courtesy of an off-the-cuff, fifth-tackle sequence in which Tyrell Sloan toed forward a midfield Liddle grubber for Lyhkan King-Togia who got his hand to it just short of the dead ball line for the first try of his NRL career.

A successful challenge saw the Raiders journey back into Dragons territory with Xavier Savage scurrying over in the right corner off it.

Hudson Young was placed on report soon after for a high shot on de Belin, but the first half scoring had dried up with the Red V taking a 24-10 edge into the break.

Liddle’s second forty started in similarly outstanding fashion to his first with the No.9 slipping into the backfield once more from his own side of halfway before finding a supporting Sloan whose no-look offload unfortunately went to ground.

It was the Raiders however who found the first points of the second half with Albert Hopoate diving over in the left corner off a Sebastian Kris flick to cut the Dragons’ advantage back to eight.

What followed was a period in which the Dragons found themselves carting the ball off their line with little reprieve as the visitors looked to grind their way back into the contest.

The Dragons’ defensive line was broken again an hour in with Young steaming through off the hip of Fogarty to sprint over in the left-hand corner to bring his side back within four.

A successful challenge saw the Raiders storm back onto the attack with 10 minutes to play with the Red V forcing a Young error which the hosts unsuccessfully challenged.

Hunt threatened to add to the Dragons lead late after Lomax again kept play alive off an attacking kick only for the skipper’s toe-forward to trickle dead.

Corey Horsburgh scored off his own grubber in the final stages to tie things up at 24 with Weekes’ conversion putting them ahead as Lomax’s late two-point field goal attempt was charged down.