Twelve months ago Ben Hunt was doing his level best to get straight outta Wollongong.

But he is now not only a happy Dragon but firing on all cylinders, backing up less than 48 hours from his star turn for Queensland in State of Origin to lead his club side to a comfortable 56-14 win over an ill-disciplined Wests Tigers outfit at WIN Stadium.

Hunt, who scored two tries at hooker for the Maroons in their Origin I win over NSW, touched down in his customary halfback position for St George Illawarra and produced four try assists as he kept them in finals contention, lifting their record to 7-6.

Zac Lomax flew over next to the cornerpost twice in the closing stages to complete a hat-trick on the back of his impressive Blues debut to register 32 points after booting 10 goals from as many attempts.

The finals are a long way away but new coach Shane Flanagan has reinvigorated the side after the Anthony Griffin three-year reign of error.

Wests Tigers fans can forget about playoffs or even going close – they have now lost nine straight are on a collision course for a third straight wooden spoon.

Ben keeps Dragons in finals Hunt

Hunt doesn’t have the reputation for being the most creative halfback in the NRL, he’s known more as a tough nut, as evidenced by the Maroons successfully using him at hooker in recent years.

But he leads the NRL for total try involvements with 31, including 22 try assists at the halfway point of the season.

He’s not as aesthetically pleasing as an out and out playmaker like Nathan Cleary but he’s extremely effective.

The Tigers got the jump on the Dragons on Friday night, opening the scoring in the fourth minute via winger Alex Lobb and they went 10-0 up when Bud Sullivan backed up a bust from broken play by fullback Jahream Bula.

But the Dragons fired up midway through the first half with Kyle Flanagan worming his way over after Tyrell Sloan batted back a Hunt bomb.

They edged ahead when Moses Suli split the Tigers up the middle for Zac Lomax to step his way over.

The Dragons should have been up 18-10 at the break but Flanagan was denied a deserved second try when the Bunker ruled a double movement even though his ball-carrying arm stayed above the ground in the cover tackle and his momentum in getting the ball down was only halted by the slow-motion replay.

It became a 12-point turnaround when Alex Seyfarth barged over just before the break after a second piggyback penalty after the double movement call.

A try to Mat Feagai off another strong Suli charge put the Dragons ahead before Sullivan came up with one of the dopiest penalties of the season when he took out Luciano Leilua on a kick-chase close to the line even though the forward was little chance of getting to the ball.

The Dragons added 14 points in the 10 minutes he was cooling his heels with Leilua latching onto a Hunt money ball before the halfback managed to bulldoze his way over, this time without Cameron Smith cheering him on from the commentary box unlike in Origin.

Leilua bagged a second off a Hunt kick this time before Flanagan’s assist led to Feagai scoring again before Lomax completed the rout with two more strikes out wide.

Tigers in turmoil

It was always going to be tough for Benji Marshall in his first year as an NRL coach after inheriting the mess that is the club where he won the 2005 premiership.

The joint-venture club is under new management but still paying the price for the years of incompetence from the previous administration.

It all looked so positive early in the season. Remember when they flogged the Sharks at Leichhardt in Round 2 and then upset the Eels with a late field goal.

That was nine long rounds ago and they haven’t won since.

The Tigers have the excuse that they have plenty of inexperienced players and that is true – but some of their current line-up have been in the NRL for a few years and are making the same mistakes they made as rookies.

Sullivan needs to be careful otherwise he might not be in the NRL much longer. He signed a five-year deal at the Dragons a couple of seasons ago, touted as their long-term halfback of the future.

But since then he has switched to the Tigers after an early release and has fallen down the pecking order behind Aiden Sezer and rookie Lachie Galvin. And with Jarome Luai coming to the club next year, he is unlikely to see much first-grade action based on his 2024 form.

His sin-binning was inexcusable, particularly given that he had conceded a similar penalty in the first half but clearly did not learn.