Showing no ill-effects of the neck injury which had him in doubt for the contest all week, Andrew Johns turned on one of the greatest performances ever witnessed at WIN Stadium to lead Newcastle to a thumping 54-6 NRL win over St George Illawarra.

Johns had opposition players and teammates alike singing his praises after engineering a nine-tries to one thumping, with the champion halfback moving past former Kiwi sharpshooter Daryl Halligan into second place on the all-time pointscorers list with 2036 career points after tallying 22 points against the Dragons.

"Joey's just, what can you say, we're not going to see another player like him," Dragons coach Nathan Brown said after the match.

"I don't think in a 100 years time, there won't be another one of him. He just tests you all game, for 80 minutes he tests you."

His performance did little to dispel the myth that the Knights only go so far as Johns takes them, but the brilliant playmaker tried desperately to play down his impact.

"There's so many other factors that have to happen for me to play well," Johns said.

"Put me behind a forward pack that's not going forward and I can't play well.

"It's just not me and I'm embarrassed that people think that, because it's a whole team effort."

After a ferocious opening in which both sides failed to take advantage of a glut of ball on the opposition's line, the Knights finally took the upper hand via a Johns penalty goal in the 17th minute.

A 40-20 from Dragons skipper Trent Barrett gave the Dragons some hope of an immediate reply, but it was the Knights that put the foot down with the visitors finally taking advantage of a back to back set on the Dragons line to send Irish winger Brian Carney over for a try in the 28th minute.

From there the floodgates opened as the Johns show clicked into gear.

He put up a bomb which Dragons winger Colin Best made a mess of to gift George Carmont a try three minutes later, while a pin-point 40-20 set up an opportunity livewire fullback Milton Thaiday gratefully accepted when he strolled over under the posts following a nice interchange of passes by the Gidley brothers.

Johns completed the rot when he backed up a fine break by Carney down the touchline to make it 24-0 at the break, and the contest appeared as good as over.

"On the back of the go-forward and on the back of the possession that we completed, he's probably the most dangerous player in the game ... and we've got some very dangerous players outside him as well," Knights coach Michael Hagan said.

"He's wonderful to watch and I think we're going to talk about him for a long time."

But while enthused with the run into the break, Hagan seemed more chuffed with the stellar defensive effort, with Best's last minute try the only breach of the night.

"Given who we were playing against, and the quality and the strikepower they've got, I think that's probably the best defensive half I've seen from them in the time I've been here," Hagan said.

The Knights showed they didn't give the Dragons a sniff when Daniel Tolar delivered a clever pass in traffic to put Riley Brown over four minutes after the break, while the Dragons night was summed up when Ben Creagh was denied a try for a double movement minutes later.

"We've been making the same mistakes at different stages of games for the past four weeks but haven't played a side that's got Joey Johns in it and Danny Buderus," Brown said.

"They made us pay."

The Knights completed their biggest win over the Dragons with Carmont securing his double, while Kurt Gidley, Danny Buderus and Anthony Quinn also crossed for four-pointers.

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