The great wall of St George Illawarra all but extinguished Wests Tigers NRL finals hopes at the Sydney Football Stadium on Friday night, the Dragons producing a stellar defensive effort to run out 21-10 winners.

The Dragons were never headed after crossing for the first of four tries after just two minutes, the red and whites consolidating top spot with their fifth win from their last five matches, the Tigers losers in six of their last seven.

It left the Tigers - who have only made the finals once in their nine campaigns as a joint-venture - facing another season of watching finals football from the sidelines requiring eight wins from their last nine matches to make the post-season.

The Tigers struggled to find a way through another standout defensive effort from the stingiest defence in the league, the home side not helped by a shocking night for Benji Marshall whose passes found the ground and the sideline more often than a teammate.

A Chris Lawrence drop on his own 20 metre line gave the Dragons an early invitation which Brett Morris accepted with his 13th try in as many games this season.

NSW hooker Robbie Farah rebounded from a poor Origin II to spark the Tigers, and he was helped by some powerful runs from hulking winger Taniela Tuiaki.

The Dragons lost NSW prop Michael Weyman to an ankle injury after 18 minutes, but it did little to halt their momentum with Ben Creagh, Ben Hornby and Wendell Sailor - who amazingly threw off four defenders on his way to the line - all scoring within an eight-minute blitz to establish a 20-0 lead.

Tigers winger Beau Ryan scored in the shadows of halftime to keep the home side in the contest against a Dragons side which completed 18 of 20 sets in the opening 40, but they suffered a setback just after the restart when Farah was ruled to have been held up over the line.

Justin Poore (knee) joined Weyman on the sidelines on 50 minutes, but it wasn't until Marshall scooted away with eight minutes remaining that the Tigers again broke through the Dragons defence.

Morris was unluckily denied his second in the dying stages when referee Jason Robinson opted not to go to the video referee, Soward capping a great game with a last minute one-pointer.

Having been lauded for his effort in turning the Dragons' fortunes around, coach Wayne Bennett was forced after the game to defuse calls for him to come to the aid of NSW for next year's Origin series.

"I'm a Queenslander," said Bennett, who last year coached New Zealand three years after holding the Australian post.

Bennett was more focused on picking up wins through the Origin campaign.

"It's a tough time of year when you've got players away on Origin - we had five away," Bennett said.

"I was more than happy to just come here tonight and get a win ... I'm not too worried about the minor parts of the game, the parts we should have done better."

Having described the game as a must win, Tigers coach Tim Sheens said he wasn't focused on his side's finals chances.

"I'm not going to start assuming what might or might not happen - we just have to play next week," he said.

"Our club is in a situation where we're just concentrating on trying to get a win.

"We haven't played poorly in terms of getting our bum smacked in the last nine or 10 or 12 weeks, but at the end of the day we're not winning enough games."

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