Brothers give a scare early but unbeaten Dragons too good in the end

The Dragons made it three wins from as many outings with a 46-24 victory over Brothers at Equex Centre.

Brothers, in their second game back in the Group Nine first grade competition, came out firing and got out to an early 14-0 lead.

But Temora gradually got their game going and reeled in Brothers' lead. They then ran riot in the second half to put Brothers away.

Joel Kelly crossed for a hat-trick of tries, capitalising on the solid platform laid by the Temora pack.

Hayden Philp continued his strong start to the year with another dominant performance back in Temora colours, while evergreen captain-coach Josh McCrone showed his class and also crossed for his third try in as many weeks.

James Stewart was also able to cross for a double.

McCrone was pleased to see his team were able to turn things around after Brothers got on top of them early on.

"If you don't turn up with the right attitude, you get that result and we didn't today," McCrone said.

"We got what we deserved in that first half.

"The most pleasing thing for me was the group, I'm lucky enough to be in my fourth year of (coaching them), and they've matured enough to change it up.

"Last year we were on the brink of it but today was pleasing that we, I wasn't pleased to be in a really bad place, but we could get our way out of a really bad place."

Leading Temora's resurgence was their pack, led by Philp, but with the help of Zach Starr, Tyler Madden and Billy Reardon.

McCrone was happy to see Temora get going in the second half.

"That was always available to us," he said.

"We did play some decent footy, we played some tough footy, we wanted to get down and dirty in the second half, which was good.

"It's a luxury we haven't had for the three or four years, we still have a dominant pack but it's a new style of football that we're learning to play. We'll get better at it but."

Temora have now taken care of Junee, reigning premiers Tumut and Brothers to open the season. They face Gundagai and Albury in the next two weeks before the bye.

"The end of the year is what it is but as long as we keep improving each week," McCrone said.

"Whilst the first half wasn't real good, we learnt a valuable lesson today and for us, if we won like 'Roos did last week, we'll take a lot more out of today than if that happened."

It was an improved performance from Brothers, who have most likely copped two of Group Nine's strongest teams in their first two weeks back.

It doesn't get much easier for them however with a clash against Young at Equex Centre next Saturday.

A SECOND half onslaught helped Young to a dominant win over Tumut at Alfred Oval on Saturday.

The Cherrypickers piled on six second half tries to run out 40-6 winners over the Blues.

It continues a tough start to the premiership defence for Tumut, who have lost all three of their opening games.

Young continue to improve under new coach Tom Giles.

The Cherrypickers led 10-0 at half-time but the floodgates opened after the main break.

Young had eight individual try scorers in the win.