St George Illawarra Dragons went down bravely against the Newcastle Knights in a 22-20 loss, almost causing one of the biggest upsets of the season.
The Red V had to battle a late change, with strike centre Moses Suli becoming injured in the warm-up and unable to take the field with a hip complaint.
It caused a back line reshuffle, but coach Dean Young held plenty of praise for his team that came a whisker away from their second win of their campaign.
"We didn't get the result obviously, which is really disappointing, but really proud of the players' effort and them sticking to the plan and sticking to what we practiced during the week," Young said in his post-match press conference.
The Dragons weathered an early storm with the Knights going up 12-0 after 10 minutes, but managed to get themselves back into the game, headlined by the performances of their young, talented forward pack.
Toby and Ryan Couchman put in serious work in the Dragons' engine room, running for 163 and 142 metres, respectively. Meanwhile Hamish Stewart picked up 168 running metres, the most of any forward on the field, with Dylan Egan picking up a try.
"I think everyone played their role well tonight. It wasn't just the young forwards. Everyone had a job to do," he added.
"We got thrown a curve ball before the game started with Moses Suli getting ruled out with a sore hip and then we had to move Matty Feagai from left wing to right centre and then put Tyrell Sloan on the left wing.
"So, I thought everyone did their job, there was some opportunities for us to win the game, and we didn't nail them and unfortunately we put all that effort in and we don't get the result."
Luckily for the Red V, Suli's hip injury doesn't seem to be too serious, but still wasn't able to make it out onto the paddock in the Hunter.
"He's okay. I don't know the full details of it, but he wasn't good to go," Young added on Suli's condition.
Despite not getting the two points, the Dragons are showing great courage and improvement as the season goes on, with plenty of signals to suggest they aren't far away from their second win of the season.
"I think it's just one of our biggest improvements over the last month or so of footy like Dean said we got a bit of a curveball, (with) Moses out, few people going different positions and doing their best there," co-skipper Damien Cook said.
"But down two tries early, the way we just handled the fast start from Newcastle in the first 20. That second 20 leading to halftime, we feel like we started to really dominate them and get ourselves back into the game. So, like Dean said, pretty proud of the boys of that effort."
The last time the two sides met in early May, the Dragons were blown off the park in front of their home fans, which saw Knights winger Greg Marzhew score five tries in a 44-10 shellacking in Wollongong.
Although the tight affair in the Hunter on Friday is the biggest indicator that the club is moving in the right direction, despite it still being a loss.
"I get confident because I see what the boys are doing day in day out training and I can see the improvement," Young said when asked if he can still build confidence from that loss.
"They scored how many points in the first half against us five weeks ago and it could have went that way, but we've changed. So, the boys fought hard through that period, turned the corner, and should have went in even at halftime."
The Dragons will welcome some star firepower to the club next year, including Keaon Koloamatanagi, Luke Metcalf, Scott Drinkwater, Connor Watson and Phillip Sami. The recruitment drive, accompanied by their strong crop of local junior forwards, illustrates a bright future for the Red V in 2027.
