Led by a new-look spine, St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan is confident his team will deliver under pressure after a promising NRL pre-season.
The Dragons host Canterbury at a sold-out Netstrata Jubilee Stadium on Saturday night, with both teams eager to open their season with a statement performance.
While the Bulldogs have had their least turnover of player talent since 2017, the Red V recruited heavily with five-eighth Kyle Flanagan joined at the club by former Parramatta fullback Clint Gutherson, and Souths duo halfback Lachlan Ilias and hooker Damien Cook to form a remodelled spine.
Former North Queensland superstar centre Valentine Holmes will also turn out for his first NRL match with his new club.
Despite limited time together the 1-6-7-9 combination appears to have quickly clicked, with the Dragons winning both their pre-season matches.
"We're really happy with our pre-season, including trials but it really means very, very little come tomorrow afternoon," Flanagan said on Friday.
"We needed that connection piece because, you know, our spine's completely different; Gutho (Gutherson), Cookie (Cooke), and Lachie (Ilias).
"We needed that time together, it's OK at training and doing it against reserve grade, but when it was under pressure from different opposition, I thought was good for us.
"I think we'll get better as the season goes on, you know, especially Lachie hasn't trained a heap, so as time goes on we'll get better as a group."
The change in personnel means a change in game plan, anchored by lightning dummy-half Cooke.
"We'll definitely change a little bit, obviously the individuals that were brought into the spine - Lachie is completely different than Ben (Hunt), Clint's completely different than Tyrell (Sloan), and Damien's completely different again.
"Damien's role out of dummy-half is going to change the way we play."
Flanagan said Sloan would play a few weeks in the NSW Cup after his off-season was badly disrupted by a stress fracture in his foot.
"He's well and truly behind in his football and we haven't had the reps for him to practise on the wing so it's just a matter of time before he gets back in, but we just need him to get some game time under his belt."
While the Dragons missed the 2024 finals, finishing the season in 11th, the Bulldogs surged up the ladder to end the year in sixth after being edged by Manly in week one of the playoffs.
St George Illawarra haven't toppled their cross-town rivals since round 12, 2022 with Flanagan describing the Bulldogs as a "quality team".
"They're a quality footy team, they showed last year they compete really hard, I expect nothing different."
