With the monkey finally off the back, St George Illawarra know the breakthrough win over Cronulla will mean little if they don’t back it up against Newcastle on Sunday.

There was a new energy at the Dragons’ Wollongong base during Tuesday’s training session, the doom and gloom of a 0-3 start to the year wiped away in 80 minutes of encouraging football.

Having been the subject of intense criticism for an attack which struggled to score points and a once impenetrable defence now leaking points across the park, the Dragons finally put it together against the Sharks.

Skipper Ben Creagh said the Dragons not only took solace from the result, but also in he fact that plans they had put in place in the off-season could actually work.

“It definitely helps the confidence, just having that one win under the belt,” Creagh said.

“Just knowing that you can do it, all the training that we’ve done can be put into practice on game day and we can win.”

Creagh denied the Wayne Bennett factor would be a motivator given the master coach who guided the Dragons to premiership glory in 2010 had now been removed from the club for more than a year.

Of the starting 13 that will run out at Kogarah on Sunday, nine players remain from the Bennett era.

But Creagh said establishing a culture of winning was more important than scoring a few bragging rights over the old coach.

“That’s going to be the secret, getting some consistency,” Creagh said.

The Dragons will be without back-up hooker Cameron King for 6-8 weeks with a strained medial ligament suffered in the win over the Sharks.