St George Illawarra will be hoping third time is a charm against Chad Townsend in Friday's NRL clash with the Warriors at Gosford's Central Coast Stadium.
Townsend has twice played leading roles in Dragons defeats in 2021 with Cronulla and will now get a third crack at Anthony Griffin's team following his mid-season switch to the Warriors.
The halfback was in the Sharks lineup in Griffin's first game in charge of the Dragons in round one which ended in a 32-18 defeat for the Red V.
In round 11, Townsend snapped a six-game losing run for the Sharks with a match-winning field goal against the Dragons in what would be his final appearance for Cronulla.
The Warriors have put Townsend and fellow new arrival Dallin Watene-Zelezniak straight into their lineup for Friday's game, and Griffin believes both mid-season recruits will only make his team's task harder.
"Chad's had a couple of games against us this year, played really well for Cronulla so he knows a bit about us," Griffin said.
"Their strengths, probably, with all due respect, are away from those guys.
"They've got a really good forward pack. They've got a lot of class in in their spine in (Wayde) Egan and (Kodi) Nikorima and (Roger) Tuivasa-Sheck.
"They've got a lot of things going for them already but obviously when you bring in a couple of experienced guys like Townsend and Dallin, that makes them even harder to beat."
Warriors captain Tuivasa-Sheck has been moved back to fullback with Watene-Zelezniak named on the wing after young gun Reece Walsh's hamstring injury during his Origin camp with Queensland.
St George, aiming to end a five-game losing run against the Warriors, have named all three of their Origin cohort in Tariq Sims, Ben Hunt and Andrew McCullough while Matt Dufty returns from a shoulder injury.
Josh McGuire and Tyrell Fuimaono are both named on the interchange bench after serving five-game suspensions.
