Injury prone Wests Tigers star Benji Marshall faces another long stint on the sideline after leaving the field just four minutes into his side's scrappy 24-16 win over St George Illawarra at the SFS.
Marshall, making a return from a fourth shoulder reconstruction, will have scans on his left knee on Monday after being forced off following an innocuous collision in his first touch of the game.
The New Zealand international tried to run off the injury before turning to his bench and shouting: "It's not stable".
Despite losing their key playmaker, the joint venture club was untroubled in putting on four tries against a disappointing Dragons outfit before 18,211 fans.
Playing in the old Western Suburbs strip, the Tigers led 18-4 at the break and withstood a late burst from Saints to secure a first-up win in hot and steamy conditions.
Four minutes after Marshall left the field the Tigers opened their account.
A John Morris grubber into the in-goal evaded the clutches of several players before Liam Fulton plunged on the bouncing ball.
Brett Hodgson landed the conversion from out wide to give his side an early 6-0 lead.
Six minutes later the Dragons hit back through skipper Mark Gasnier, who beat three defenders to score a terrific solo try out wide to make it 6-4.
But from the kick off St George Illawarra fullback Josh Morris knocked on and the Tigers immediately went back on the attack.
The Morris mistake was compounded when John Morris and Fulton combined to send Chris Lawrence in from the ensuing set.
Hodgson was again on target with the conversion and Wests had skipped out a 12-4 advantage.
Worse was to come for the Dragons, conceding a third try after 24 minutes.
Robbie Farah, taking full advantage of some slack marker defence, dummied and went through Ben Creagh and Justin Poore before rounding Morris to score a great individual try.
With Hodgson adding the extras, the Tigers led 18-4 heading into half-time.
The hosts kept the noose tightened with their fourth try 11 minutes after the resumption, interchange player Tim Moltzen toeing ahead to score after a Farah grubber kick rebounded off Creagh's knees close to the line.
The Dragons scored through Jamie Soward five minutes later - courtesy of more magic from Gasnier, who stepped back inside two defenders to clear a path to the line.
At 24-10 with 24 minutes to go, the match was there to be won by the red and whites if they were good enough.
Kirk Reynoldson narrowed the gap further in the 69th minute, steaming onto a lovely Rangi Chase pass to charge over from 10m out.
Soward's conversion made it 24-16 and there were some nervous Tigers supporters praying for fulltime.
The Tigers even reverted to an old 1970s ploy to wrap the game up, failing to ground the ball after employing Parramatta's flying wedge move.
But countless St George Illawarra mistakes at the back-end of the game put pay to any miracle escape.
Tigers 24
Tries: Fulton, Lawrence, Farah, Moltzen
Conversions: Hodgson 4
Dragons 16
Tries: Gasnier, Soward, Reynoldson
Conversions: Soward 2
Sportal's NRL Player of the Year:
3 - Liam Fulton (Wests)
2 - John Morris (Wests)
1 - Robbie Farah (Wests)