It will the first time the Burgh will play at home as defending premiers since bringing the trophy up Lawrence Hargrave Drive last season for the first time in 22 years.

The Tigers were low enough on troops last week that coach Ryan Powell pulled on the boots in a narrow 12-10 loss to Thirroul in which they came back from 12-0 down at halftime.

Premiership winning skipper Steve McCallum said it will likely remain a cameo but said the club will reap the benefits of blooding some talented youngsters as the season goes on.

“We said all preseason that we wanted to give some of the younger blokes and opportunity,” McCallum said.

“It was disappointing with the result [against Thirroul] but there were some good signs there. Defensively we were pretty good we just lacked a bit of polish on our attacking raids.

“We made the reserve grand final [last year] and the under 19s were a bit unlucky not to make it last year so we’ve got a lot of talent there. It’s a good place to be for guys like me and Smitty [Grant Smith] to stick around and bring some younger guys through, show a bit of leadership for them and bring them into grade.

“That’s what our club’s about. We haven’t got the money to go and buy players so we’ve got to bring through the youth and it was good to see some of those guys get a crack. I’m sure if they need to play again through the year they’ll step up for us.”

The Tigers will be bolstered by the return of chief play-maker Jarrod Boyle in a line-up that will see 10 members of the grand final-winning side take the field for the defending premiers.

Having waited a long time to taste that elusive premiership success, McCallum said his side has a burning desire to remain at the top of the Illawarra Coal League tree – starting with Saturday’s showdown.

“The hunger’s always there. It was awesome to breakthrough but when you get a taste of success like that it just makes you want to do it all again,” he said.

Rex Jackson Oval has been a graveyard for visiting teams the past two seasons with the Tigers dropping just two games on their home patch – ironically both to Wests.

“It’s always a good battle between us and Wests. They got us last year at home so we want to right that wrong and it’s a grand final rematch so there’ll be a lot of feeling in it,” McCallum said.

Elsewhere in the league Collies hosted Dapto on Friday night while Thirroul travel to Ziems Park to take on Corrimal on Saturday.