St George Illawarra missed out on a top four finish despite coming from behind to secure a 36-16 win over the Sydney Roosters in Saturday night's NRL clash at the SCG.

The Dragons scored five unanswered tries after the break to secure their third win on the trot.

But they were unable to do enough to bridge the points differential gap with Manly despite the Sea Eagles' 30-20 loss to Melbourne at Olympic Park.

If Brisbane beats New Zealand at Suncorp Stadium the Dragons will finish the regular season in sixth position, while a loss for the Broncos would elevate the Dragons to fifth.

Despite eventually securing a comfortable win, the Dragons were pushed early by a Roosters side aiming to become the first NRL club to register 1000 wins and send out coach Ricky Stuart a winner after he was shown the door earlier this week.

The home side started with plenty of gusto to run up a 10-0 lead after as many minutes, Ryan Cross celebrating his last game in the red, white and blue before his switch to rugby union next season with an intercept try off an errant pass from Dragons skipper Trent Barrett.

Brett Morris eventually got the Dragons on the board when he outleaped opposite Sam Perrett to score in the corner but when Amos Roberts crossed for his second off a perfectly weighted Brett Finch banana kick the Roosters were up 16-4.

But that was as good as it got for the Roosters with the Dragons storming home, the rot starting three minutes before the break when Matt Cooper crossed out wide after the Roosters defence simply ran out of numbers.

The red and whites then stepped on the accelerator after the break with four tries in 12 minutes, Morris completing his double in similar fashion to his first before Wes Naiqama spectacularly chased down a Ben Hornby grubber to touch down millimetres inside the touch in goal line.

Clint Greenshields also secured a double when he went over with two minutes remaining but the Dragons still fell three points short of overhauling the Sea Eagles on points differential.

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