St George Illawarra is already talking about exacting revenge for its heartbreaking 1999 grand final loss to Melbourne after disposing of Manly 28-0 in Friday's NRL semi-final at Aussie Stadium.

The Dragons will face the minor premier in next Saturday's preliminary final at Telstra Stadium for the right to play in the grand final the following week.

"That's the only grand final I've played in and they beat us," Dragons skipper Trent Barrett said when asked about the Storm clash.

"I haven't played them there since then - it would be nice to get one back on them.

"It's going to be a big game and hopefully we'll have the majority of the crowd there, that would be great."

Dragons coach Nathan Brown upped the ante by declaring the joint-venture club could "beat anyone at the moment" after conceding just one try in 160 minutes of finals football.

"At the moment we are very respectful of who we play but we are confident we can beat anyone at the moment," he said.

"Obviously we've got a lot of time for Melbourne, they're a well coached side with plenty of good players, but we'll go out there confident we are on the way up and we can win the game."

Dragons winger Brett Morris provided the sizzle with two tries, but it was makeshift halfback Ben Hornby who provided the telling blows, controlling the game with a masterful kicking and passing display.

With the game in the balance at 8-0 at halftime, utility Hornby scored a crucial solo try just 76 seconds after the resumption to put the result beyond doubt and raise hopes of a breakthrough premiership for the joint-venture club.

Even when regular No.7 Mathew Head was injected into the game in the second half, Hornby continued to call the shots, with Brown confirming he would retain him at playmaker against the Storm next week.

It took a piece of brilliance in the 20th minute from Clint Greenshields to open the scoring, the fullback finding unmarked winger Morris with a miracle overhead pass.

Backrower Matt Bickerstaff seemingly took the wrong option when he took on the defence on the last tackle, but managed to shovel the ball to Greenshields, whose speculator found the chest of Morris despite the attention of two defenders.

The joint-venture club then went further ahead via an Aaron Gorrell penalty goal, although the 8-0 halftime advantage could have been greater if not for two contentious video referee decisions - a disallowed 40-20 kick to five-eighth Trent Barrett and a controversial no-try decision when Morris claimed his second.

However, the setbacks didn't matter with Hornby breaking the Sea Eagles when he wrestled past Anthony Watmough just after the break.

From there the floodgates opened with centres Darryl Millard and Matt Cooper crossing, before Morris grabbed his second try late in the game.

The result ended the glittering career of inspirational Sea Eagles skipper Ben Kennedy on a sad note and meant the Brookvale club's winless finals streak would be extended to at least a decade.

"I've been saying all week that I really thought the winner out of this game would probably go on and win it," Kennedy said.

"They gave us an arse smacking so I'd say they are going to go pretty close."

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