Is it time for the Dragons to panic?

They haven’t won in a month. Look set to relinquish first place. Have a number of stars nursing injuries.

But is time for the St George Illawarra Dragons to panic? Not by a long shot.

Plenty are casting doubts over the Dragons’ right to favouritism in their premiership defence after a draw against Parramatta and losses to the Gold Coast and last night Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium.

However, those setbacks can put be down to a perfect storm of a heavy Origin commitment (the Dragons have had eight players involved in Origin to date) and injuries (Dean Young, Matt Cooper and Brett Morris all missed last night’s 21-14 defeat, while Ben Creagh and Beau Scott were ruled out after Origin II).

To make matters worse, captain Ben Hornby didn’t return for the second period because of an ankle injury.

Melbourne (who play Wests on Sunday) and/or Manly (who host Parramatta on Monday) can both leap above the Dragons with victory this weekend.

Despite all the bad news, things are still looking good for the defending premiers – even in Brisbane last night they had every chance to win but came up short with a tired line-up.

A major point of contention came in the 37^th minute when Jharal Yow Yeh scored for 14-4 after stand-out Jack Reed clearly passed forward for the winger to touch down in the corner.

The call came after what should have been the Broncos first try was knocked back when Reed was ruled to have tapped to a kick forwards to Peter Wallace.

At the other end Peni Tagive’s second was disallowed for a forward pass.

On the other Dragons flank, Jason Nightingale had a try knocked back despite dazzling lead-up work from Origin trio Jamie Soward, Darius Boyd and Mark Gasiner.

In the 52^nd minute the same troika combined to bring the Dragons back to within four points after Soward scored and converted.

However, a 40-20 out of nowhere from Darren Lockyer broke upon the game when the Broncos scored through Reed from the ensuring scrum win. Matt Prior got the Dragons back with four again, but Lockyer potted the match-winning field goal with five minutes remaining.

Last night was an example of a tired, down-on-its-luck, beat-up team doing its best.

They could have seriously won that match – a dodgy call against them and one in favour of the Broncos made all the difference.

At full strength – which barring disaster should be in about four weeks – the Dragons are the best team in the comp. Morris will be back soon and while the Dragons will have to wait for some of the stars, they should be fine. They’re too well-coached and too professional to suffer a catastrophic collapse.