Dragons' finals fire extinguished by loss

They sat in the top eight going into the round 17 bye but have lost the next seven games to slip to 12^th spot.

Its history now but the covid breach barbeque at Paul Vaughan's, extinguished their seasons hopes and now they can get ready for 2022.

At least rookie hooker Jayden Sullivan, five-eighth Junior Amone and fullback Tyrell Sloan, who played together as juniors in Illawarra's 2019 SG Ball premiership win, showed cause for optimism about the club's future.

The trio gave fans hope when they set up a great try for Zac Lomax before Sullivan, pinched a try from dummy-half.

And on the half-time bell, Amone placed a classic inside kick for Sloan to run through and score.

Frustrated coach Anthony Griffin saw a mix of brilliance and inexperience from his young players in the loss and hopes they will keep evolving.

"They were terrific. You see their natural ability and today will help them long-term," coach Griffin said after the game.

"They came up with a couple of plays that probably weren't the right plays at the right time, but you 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."

"It's been a rapid rise for the young players given their chances"

Griffin was still disappointed with the Dragons now not even a mathematical chance of making the playoffs.

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

"In the end, there wasn't too much in it: a couple of intercepts and that period where they got three tries.

"Unfortunately, that's killed us off."

Now all the Red V fans can do is get excited for the NRLW season which has expanded, with the Titans, Knights and Eels joining foundation clubs Brisbane, St George Illawarra and the Roosters.

Taliah Fuimaono is the 12th player listed for the Dragons' 2021 women's campaign ahead of the competition's October start.

The fourth edition of the NRLW will get underway in the first weekend of October - in line with the men's NRL Telstra Premiership grand final.

The competition will run for six weeks with teams playing each other once before the top two sides advance to play for the premiership in a stand alone grand final on the first weekend in November.

All six squads will be able to begin training this week with a four-week pre-season before another week's preparation leading into their opening-round clashes.