Even after 169 NRL games and potentially just one more to go, nobody knows what to make of Dave Taylor, least of all St George-Illawarra, a side he would terrorise on Sunday to ensure the Dragons limp meekly into the NRL finals.

The Coal Train has been off the rails so many times in his career at Brisbane, Souths and the Titans but he was chugging along beautifully at Robina on Sunday afternoon, scoring a pair of tries - including the match winner - in the Gold Coast's 28-26 victory.

He mixed the bad with the good, as per usual, but this time had the balance right as the Gold Coast try to avoid their second wooden spoon in five seasons, although next week's trip to North Queensland looks rough.

By the end of the afternoon, he had 10 tackle breaks, two line break assists, two line breaks, 36 tackles and ran for 131m in his 80-minute performance. If he played like that every week, Neil Henry might have himself a champion.

But he doesn't, which is why he's heading to French club Catalans, potentially ending the NRL career of a 27-year-old that will forever be remembered as a physical freak who couldn't always live up to his obvious potential.

It was a rough finish for the Dragons, who were in command 20-12 at the break and really should have finished this one off with a stamp of class. Instead, David Mead added a second-half double and halfback Kane Elgey slotted the crucial final conversion to give the Titans win number nine for the season.

Barring a massive win by Manly over the Sharks next week, the Dragons will still qualify for the finals, most likely rounding out eighth spot. But this was hardly the kind of effort their fans would have wanted to see just a fortnight before a knockout semi-final, particularly given the Titans had just one usable player on their bench for most of the second half.

They will point to a number of questionable calls that went in favour of the Gold Coast, with Mead's second try and Agnatius Paasi's opener both getting the benefit of the doubt from the video referee.

But they had plenty more to play for than their lowly opposition and must fire against the Wests Tigers next week to gain anything resembling momentum heading into a finals match, potentially against Melbourne or the Bulldogs.

This match was still very winnable for the Dragons with 10 minutes to play, when they led 26-22 thanks to a brilliant 90m effort from Gareth Widdop.

The Titans would rally though, with Taylor burrowing his way over from dummy-half to smash through the red defence and level scores, before impressive young half Elgey did the rest.

Taylor was one of some 15 players being farewelled by the Titans in their final home fixture, with Nate Myles, Beau Falloon and Aidan Sezer among the others leaving at the end of the season.