Jason Taylor wanted ownership from his halves. Fair to say he got it. Minus Robbie Farah, Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks finally wrestled the keys to the Tigers back into their young hands and didn't let their coach down. At least not yet.
"It's part of what I'm wanting to continue ... these guys taking ownership," Taylor said. "The pressure is on them and I want the pressure to be on them."
And how it was. Brooks bamboozled the Dragons on a couple
of occasions, a recurring theme since his sparkling NRL introduction a few years ago.
Moses was even better. He had the ball on a string from boot and out of hand, proving his diverse range of skills in one stunning second-half minute which finally put an out-of-sorts Dragons to bed.
Think the Tigers can't make the finals with their State of Origin No.9 watching from the sidelines? Taylor says think again.
"We're not in the semi-finals and I know these guys haven't played in the semi-finals, but we're having a crack at getting ourselves to there so every game can become a semi-final for us," Taylor said. "That's great.
"Will we make it? I don't know. With the pressure on and knowing we need to keep playing well to get there ... that's semi-final like. And what we want to do is get these guys prepared for semi-final football. That's the direction we're planning to go in over the next few years."
It's a direction the Dragons look a long way from heading this season, albeit they are still top eight fringe dwellers and on the same points as the Tigers but burdened by an abysmal points differential, having succumbed 25-12 to the other joint venture on Sunday.
The famous Red V has also been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons as well this past week and coach Paul McGregor woke up to phone calls of support from fellow NRL coaches after an online poll showed fans want the coach axed.
"I actually didn't read it, but I got enough phone calls from other coaches and players I've coached before to push it all aside I suppose," McGregor said. "A few clubs go through it at different stages throughout the year and we're going through it at the moment.
At times you've got to go through some tough times to get some success. It's not always a straight line. There's a lot of clubs below
us that are getting less heat than us at the moment."
McGregor staunchly defended his record, which included the first finals appearance for the club in four years in 2015 in his first full year in charge of the NRL side.
Asked the message from his fellow coaches: "I don't need to go into that. Everyone goes through different stages of their coaching career and you keep your chin up and try to do a good job.
"We still can make the eight and there's a lot of other teams in the competition that can't."
As for the Farah-less future Taylor appears hell bent on tracking? He reckons his experiment, which saw winger Jordan Rankin moonlighting at rake to relieve the retiring Dene Halatau, is far from being hailed a success. At least not yet.
"It was never going to ball down to just this game and the result on the scoreboard and I've tried to work hard at saying that over the last few days," he said. "I don't think it's an indication, but it's about a direction I want to see the team keep moving towards and I saw that today."
