Canterbury looked far better than a bottom-of-the-ladder NRL side as they thrashed an apathetic St George Illawarra 28-6 at Stadium Australia.
The Bulldogs rallied for just their second win of the season by exposing St George Illawarra's severe defensive lapses as reports emerged the Dragons' star five-eighth Corey Norman is not wanted beyond this season.
The 30-year-old is off-contract at the end of the year and has been told by the club he won't be re-signed, joining Matt Dufty on a list of players to be cleaned out of the backline next season.
The news on Norman's uncertain future broke during the match and compounded a miserable night for the once Queensland Origin half, who was also put on report for a shot on Matt Doorey.
Dufty was told his future lies at another NRL club weeks ago with defensive lapses believed to be the reason despite his speed and ability with the ball.
Those lapses became agonisingly clear on Monday afternoon when he was fooled by a dummy from Jake Averillo who strolled through to score, and again for the Bulldogs' third in the 52nd minute.
In a horrible show of goal line defence, Jeremy Marshall-King threw an exaggerated dummy from behind the ruck and wandered through to score under the posts when Dufty fell for it.
But the Dragons saved the worst of it for last.
Bulldogs second-rower Adam Elliott barely had to battle to find the line despite attracting no less than five disinterested Dragons defenders who still couldn't stop him from 10 metres out.
"We just got it wrong, obviously," said coach Anthony Griffin.
"There's no excuse for what happened there today."
Signs of the upset were apparent early when Bulldogs skipper Josh Jackson was sin-binned and somehow the Dragons still conceded a try.
Averillo, who was at his dynamic best, burned Dragons forward Jack de Belin on the outside to cruise across the line untouched to get the Bulldogs on the board.
And by the time Jackson replenished the side to 13 players in the 35th minute, the Bulldogs were in front 8-6 for just their second halftime lead this season.
The last time they led at halftime was for their only other victory of the season against Cronulla in round seven.
"It gives them some confidence, it has been a tough, difficult three months so we have an opportunity now just to get better again each week.
"We've got Parramatta next week who are a top-four side and a really good team, so we're going to have to improve some things still on what we did tonight."
As for the Dragons, their only try came in the 22nd minute through Brayden Wiliame who gathered up a grubber-kick from Norman to score.
The Dragons have now won only two of their past nine games, including one against the Bulldogs a month ago.
