Brett Morris didn't quite win his head-to-head battle with Brisbane but his St George Illawarra teammates did more than enough to beat the Broncos.

Set up against the Broncos as part of an exotic betting option pitting him with five and a half points start against the whole Brisbane side, Morris' two tries looked like proving too much for the visitors before a pair of late four-pointers saved the northerners from embarrassment.

But while Brisbane managed to cover Morris, the Dragons' four other tries simply served to reinforce the gap between the two sides - the Broncos still with just one win on the board this season.

Any fears last week's loss to premiers Melbourne had hurt the Dragons confidence were quickly evaporated as they ran rings around a 'Baby Broncos' side ravaged by injury and club-imposed suspensions to Ben Te'o and Antonio Winterstein.

The young backs were brutally exposed by the likes of Darius Boyd, Jason Nightingale and Morris, who returned to the top of the try-scoring ranks with his seventh touchdown of the season.

He was unlucky to be denied an eighth for what would have been a first half hat-trick, with video referee Sean Hampstead somehow finding an obstruction from Matt Cooper on a beaten Gerard Beale in the 30th minute.

As it was Morris scored three minutes later and again on the stroke of halftime, Boyd the provider on both occasions as the Dragons turned a 6-6 scoreline the Broncos had worked desperately hard to attain, into an 18-6 lead at the break.

The second half was a procession, with Luke Priddis showing all the guile collected in 299 games of NRL footy to set up Nightingale's four-pointer down the short side before Ben Hornby and Dean Young scored to set up a commanding 34-6 lead with 13 minutes remaining.

But the punters who had backed Morris were left ruing a late charge as Josh Hoffman and then Andrew McCullough in the 79th minute added some respectability to the scoreboard.

Dragons coach Wayne Bennett said he was happy to see his side turn in a committed performance against a Broncos outfit most people had written off.

"You go to Melbourne last week and it's easy, everybody's up for that and everyone wants to play in the game," Bennett said.

"You read about the Broncos with their injuries and players suspended and the players are also reading and hearing about it and trying to convince themselves it's going to be a tough game - it puts more pressure on you."

Broncos coach Ivan Henjak had nothing but praise for his young side, with 11 of the 17-man squad either still eligible or just out of the Toyota Cup competition.

"They'll learn a lot and get a lot out of that tonight. They took some steps forward, we've got a way to go," Henjak said.

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