A Mat Rogers field goal in the final minute of golden point extra time may have saved Gold Coast's NRL premiership hopes as the Titans pipped St George Illawarra 11-10 at WIN Jubilee Oval on Friday night.

Staring down the barrel of dropping out of the eight, Rogers popped out of dummy half from ten metres out and knocked over the one-pointer with just 50 seconds on the clock to keep the Titans well in finals contention.

It was a gutsy win for the Titans minus representative pair Greg Bird and Ashley Harrison, the Dragons now none from four in golden point games as they missed a prime opportunity to move a step closer to securing the minor premiership.

Locked up following a rugged 80 minutes, both sides traded wayward shots at field goal in extra time, though no opportunity was more clearcut than Rogers' simple shot from close range.

The first half, played in constant drizzle, was punctuated by a series of dubious calls from video referee Paul Simpkins, with both sides awarded questionable four-pointers before Matt Cooper was denied what appeared a fair effort just before the break.

Titans backrower Anthony Laffranchi came up short when he swivelled out of three tacklers and reached out for the line, but the man in the box ruled in his favour when the ball was propelled into the in-goal thanks to contact from the leg of tackler Jeremy Smith.

If the Dragons fans were scratching their heads they were soon applauding Simpkins when Ben Creagh was awarded a try despite appearing to bounce the ball to lock it up after 23 minutes.

Lacking the fluency that had been a feature of their early season play, the Dragons finally looked like breaking the gallant Titans resistance when Shannon Walker opened what was an unfortunate return to the top grade when he spilled a bomb in front of his own sticks.

Cooper, one short of bringing up a century of tries, looked like he'd got to three figures when he picked up a spilled ball and dived over, Simpkins somehow spotting a Soward knock-on and a Luke Bailey offside penalty with a Dragons penalty goal the result.

Darius Boyd had no reason for complaint when he dropped a Scott Prince clearing kick, the innocuous fumble turning the game on its head with Kevin Gordon scoring the cleanest try of the night in the ensuing set to lock it up at 10-all.

Rogers said he was always eyeing his shot at glory once Nathan Friend had darted out of dummy half the play before.

"They all had eyes for Princey so as soon as Friendy went I was never giving the ball to Princey," Rogers said.

"He gets all the glory on the Gold Coast so I'll take some off him."

Titans coach Johns Cartwright said it was good to put some critics in their place.

"We were written off pretty well by everyone tonight ... but I firmly believe things have been going against us the last few weeks," Cartwright said.

"When it mattered we got a few bounces that went our way and we got a win, but I don't think it was any different to the last two weeks when you were writing us off."

Dragons coach Wayne Bennett refused to get too downbeat over the loss.

"We're playing quality teams right now, the Rabbitohs last week they were desperate, Gold Coast haven't played well for a month at least so they were coming with a must-win attitude," he said.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP