The 'Jekyll and Hyde' of the NRL - the St George Illawarra Dragons - lived up to their moniker by backing up from a woeful loss to smash the Melbourne Storm 34-14 in their NRL clash.

But don't call them erratic.

Dragons coach Nathan Brown hit out at those who criticised his side's hot and cold form despite St George Illawarra notching only its second win in five games.

"Everyone says how erratic we are but we have won as many games as every other team in the comp except for three," Brown said after the six tries to three shellacking.

"So there must be a hell of a lot of erratic teams in the comp.

"We are confident we are improving. We've got the fourth best attack and the second best defence... we can't be going terrible if you've got that, we can't be too far off the money."

However, Brown's monologue was preceded by Dragons skipper Trent Barrett admitting his side was indeed erratic.

"We have been (erratic). That just shows how close the comp is ... you can't afford to go 'win, loss, win, loss'," Barrett said.

But the Dragons - seventh before tonight's game - still kept their top four finals hopes alive by moving to an 11-10 record while Melbourne slumped to its fourth loss in five games and a 10-10 record.

It ended an "emotional" week for Melbourne which was still reeling from forward Danny Williams' NRL judiciary record 18-match ban for striking on Wednesday night.

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