Stat Attack: The risky plays that turned Red V around

A little over 12 months ago the Dragons' attack was an eyesore.

After registering just 341 points in 2016 – the lowest season total in the joint-venture's history – St George Illawarra rattled up an impressive 533 points for the year to rank fifth in the NRL.

Key to the transformation was newfound go forward and an ability to get themselves into attacking territory – which they did by chancing their arm more often than any other side in 2017.

The Dragons' 264 effective offloads from 353 attempts (at a 75 per cent success rate) were the most in the NRL last year, as was the 110.6 metres a game they made off the back of a pass slipped in the midst of a tackle.

Tyson Frizell and Tim Lafai proved themselves particularly adept in this facet, with their teammates making an extra 14.6 metres (Frizell) and 11.1 metres (Lafai) each time they got a pass away.

Paul McGregor's side also threw more offloads than any of their competitors (143, six per game) when it came to working off their own try line.

The result – a total of 40,954 metres for the season at an average of 1706m each match, again the best in NRL.

*A previous version of this story had the Dragons listed as making 285 offloads in 2017. This has been updated to 264 effective offloads to reflect this development in their game more accurately.