Dragons coach Mark Horo's 17-man side boasts a liberal sprinkling of NRL talent, featuring seasoned campaigners like half-back Mathew Head, full-back Brett Morris and lock Neville Costigan.

Also lining up for Shellharbour are St George Illawarra squad members Nick Emmett, Michael Lett, Jon Green, Micky Paea, Daniel Felupeai and Trent Merrin.

"I have no doubt that having the likes of such an experienced group of players should certainly make my job easier, but it's up to me to get them to play as a team and play to their strengths," Horo said.

"It's a bit like New Zealand in the World Cup. If you picked a world's best team, 11 of the starting 13 would be Australian players, but it's about which team comes together and plays the best football, and that's what we're about. That's the pressure I apply to myself in terms of getting them to perform to the best of their ability.

"We've put in a lot of hard work over the last five months and developed a really strong culture at the club. There's been a lot of sweat and tears and we're ready to get out there and play footy.

"I'm excited about it and I know the guys are all really looking forward to it. It's imperative we get our season off to a good start."

The Dragons were known as the Shellharbour Marlins in the previous two years and played in the Jim Beam Cup.

Lining up tomorrow from last year's squad will be five-eighth Brad Davidson, Daniel Deaves and Jeff Zwolsman.

Head will form a skilful scrum-base combination with Davidson, Morris and Lett are expected to provide attacking flair in the backs, while Costigan, Green and Paea will take some stopping up front.

"We need our forwards to do their job and lay a good platform for Matty to run things," Horo said.

"Newtown probably don't have on paper what we have but they're a good side and we'll certainly have to be on our game for 80 minutes. The whole first round is more about focusing on ourselves and what we can control. It's important that we concentrate on our own ability and our own performance."

Kick-off is at 3pm.