The Dragons have sounded the death knell on Parramatta's season of woe, emphatically extinguishing the Eels faint finals hopes with a 40-14 win at ANZ Stadium, with Wendell Sailor bagging a hat-trick of tries.
The Eels were shown up as finals hoaxes, and hardly played like a side whose season was on the line, leaking three tries in the opening 20 minutes and five more at regular intervals through the remaining hour.
Powerhouse prop Dan Hunt barged through some paper-thin Eels defence to register the opening points in the 7th minute, but it was to be the first of many soft tries for a red-hot Dragons outfit.
The worrying defensive signs continued for the Eels when a flat ball down the blind side from Jason Nightingale presented Ben Creagh with the Dragons second in the 16th minute.
A short ball from Ben Hornby to Gasnier provided try number three for the Dragons, placing the Eels finals hopes on life support.
The Eels looked to have broken through for a try in the 34th minute when Jaryd Hayne steamed onto a Feleti Mateo cutout ball to sprint 40 metres and cross in the corner, but referee Tony Archer pulled the play back for a forward pass.
Shortly after the Dragons made it a two-try turnaround, when a floating cutout ball from Kris Keating was nabbed by Sailor, who streaked away to score the first of his treble under the posts.
Gasnier nailed the conversion to make it 24-nil in favour of the visitors at the break.
The second half started in a similar vein to the first - Josh Morris busted the Eels down the right hand edge, before some slick ball movement provided Sailor with his second try of the night in the left corner in just the 42nd minute.
The Eels finally crossed the stripe in the 47th minute through Luke Burt, and the Parramatta custodian nailed the sideline conversion to make it 28-6 with just over half an hour remaining.
But Matt Cooper hit a hole at speed to force his way over in the 53rd minute to reaffirm the Dragons dominance, as the Eels defence continued to fold meekly in the face of any sort of pressure.
Burt grabbed himself a double courtesy of an intercept in the 61st minute, but it was to prove small consolation as the Dragons continued to roll over the top of their overmatched rivals.
Sailor powered over two Eels defenders to notch up a hat-trick in the 63rd minute, with Morris getting in on the act with a try in the corner in the 69th minute to bring up 40 for the Dragons.
Mateo grabbed a consolation for Parramatta in the 74th minute, rounding out the demoralising defeat.
Sailor thought it was eight years since he had last scored three or more tries in a senior game, as he recalled running in four for Brisbane against the Dragons in a finals game.
"I'm just getting fitter, playing the end of that backline makes it a bit easier, I didn't have to do a great deal for those tries," Sailor said.
"Just a couple of opportunist tries. When you play outside Matt Cooper and guys like Mark Gasnier, it makes it easier. Everyone is rolling along."
Dragons coach Nathan Brown acknowledged Sailor's contribution, whilst recognising the veteran winger wasn't quite the same force as he once was.
"He's definitely not the Dell of six years ago, but he's contributing really well, he's getting fitter and his positional play is very good," Brown said.
The Dragons coach felt his team's attack was better than it had been for a couple of years.
"The second half against Brisbane and the last two weeks, our attack has been the best it's been, probably since Matty Head, Trent Barrett and Luke Bailey and all those blokes, it's definitely been our best since 2006."
Dragons prop Jason Ryles wasn't surprised by the ease with which his side won.
"We knew if we stuck with them they wouldn't be able to stick with us, we're just happy with the way we started and a few of them threw in the towel," Ryles said.
Parramatta coach Michael Hagan was almost understated in his response to his team's performance.
"It wasn't all that flash," Hagan said.
Star forward Nathan Hindmarsh was more expansive and critical.
"Defensively we were poor all across the side. Usually we get three or four in tackles, tonight we were ones and twos," Hindmarsh said.
"We're a much better side than what we showed tonight and we probably played one of our worst games in a few weeks at the wrong time.
"It was a very important game for us and we blew it."
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 40 (W Sailor 3 M Cooper B Creagh M Gasnier D Hunt J Morris tries M Gasnier 4 goals) bt PARRAMATTA 14 (L Burt 2 F Mateo tries L Burt goal) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: T Archer. Crowd: 17,103.