Manly superstar Tom Trbojevic has signalled he is back and unhindered by injury after blitzing St George Illawarra in the Sea Eagles' 34-14 NRL thumping at Lottoland.
After being hobbled by a hamstring injury for most of the year, the Sea Eagles' No.1 put in a dominant individual performance in Sunday afternoon's six-tries-to-two rout.
Des Hasler's side scored 34 unanswered points to inflict further pain on the Dragons.
After being sixth in round six, but losing six of their past seven games, they are in 13th to leave them stagnating heading into the representative-round break.
The Dragons dominated early possession to open up an 8-0 lead but, when Jack Gosiewski burrowed over seven minutes after halftime, the home side led 16-8.
Trbojevic, playing just his second game back from a hamstring injury and fourth match of the year, then imposed himself on the game.
According to Fox Sports Stats, his 333 run metres was the fourth most since records started in 1998.
Only Justin Hodges (346m), Wade McKinnon (345m) and Akuila Uate (335m) have made more in a match.
He also had one try assist, two line breaks, two line-break assists, 11 tackle busts and five offloads.
"Going the length of the field, he certainly tested that hamstring," Manly coach Des Hasler said.
"He brings that confidence and turns those half chances into points."
First, he pierced through the Dragons' line and Cade Cust crossed from the next play.
Five minutes later, he caught out some lazy defence around the ruck to send Mainese Fainu over.
Then he did it all himself, cleaning up a Corey Norman grubber and running 70 metres to cap a memorable performance.
The result leaves the Dragons in a big hole - they snapped a five-game losing streak with a win over last-placed Canterbury last week but took a step backwards on Sunday.
The likes of Ben Hunt, Korbin Sims, Tyson Frizell and Paul Vaughan looked inspired early as the Dragons completed 14 of 14 sets in the opening 20 minutes.
They led 8-0 lead after Hunt ran over the top of Jake Trbojevic but the game seemingly turned on a dime.
Both sides lost their dummy-halves within two minutes of each other, with Dragons No.9 Cameron McInnes failing a head injury assessment and Manly's Api Koroisau leaving the field with an ankle injury.
"At the end of the day, we were out-worked and over-powered," Dragons coach Paul McGregor said.
"We just have to stay disciplined and patient in our footy and play the percentage game and we just don't want to do that.
"We don't want to work hard enough for it. We want the easy before the hard.
"It doesn't matter if they're young or old."
