There'll be some star power missing but no less intensity when traditional rivals Wests and Thirroul collide at Parrish Park on Saturday.
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It will be the Devils first outing at home this season after wet weather kept them off their patch earlier on in their campaign.
In a quirk of the rain-affected draw, it will be the second meeting between the top-two rivals in the space of a fortnight.
Wests proved too good for a lacklustre Butchers in a June long weekend make-up clash, grinding out a 24-10 win. The rapid turn is a rare chance to quickly atone for the Butchers, with a crucial two points on the line.
"We're looking forward to trying to right a few wrongs and perform a bit better than we did against them last time," Butchers coach Jarrod Costello said.
"It was only two weeks down the track [from that] so we didn't have to wait too long for another opportunity.
"You look at it now, it's our second game against Wests and [the top three] are all sitting on the same points.
"We're halfway through the comp and, if you don't beat those other teams vying for the top two early on, they're hard to come by [later on].
"We're preparing as best we can to put a better all-round performance in than we did a fortnight ago."
A win at Parrish Park would be a memorable one given a heavy injury and suspension toll.
A 50-12 win over Corrimal last week cost Costello five-eighth Mitch Francis and back-rower Luke Dodge to injury, while skipper Damian Sironen will be sidelined for a week after pleading guilty to a grade two shoulder charge at the judiciary.
They join Harry Leddy and Kaleb Hocking in the casualty ward, while star centre Steve Marsters is on Test duty with Cook Islands.
It will leave Costello looking beyond the usual suspects to upset the Devils at home, but it's a scenario Thirroul have traditionally relished.
"There'll inevitably be some changes to our side because we've got a few guys missing but there's no excuses on our part," Costello said.
"We're a club that prides ourselves on working hard and helping each other out across all three grades so that'll be the basis of our effort this weekend.
"It provides some opportunity for guys to start in the side that may not have had that opportunity this year.
"That brings its own sort of enthusiasm and excitement and we'll be ready to go come three o'clock."
Francis' absence will see Hayden Crosland paired with young gun Tarje Whitford in the halves, the latter proving the rock of the spine this season.
"He's a really good kid and footy player," Costello said.
"He's been the mainstay or our spine and he's the only one to have played the whole season in that jumper.
"He's become a lot more mature and he was really good last week. He's only 21 so he's pretty young for a bloke playing the role he's playing in our team at the moment."
A similarly undermanned Devils did well to see off De La Salle 25-10 on the road last week with first-choice halves Justin Rodrigues and Callum Waldock absent.
Key forwards Zac Blay and Dylan Lauri were also sidelined, as was strike centre Colby Pellow in a win that kept the Devils in the top two with just three-for-and-against points separating them from the Butchers in third.
Rodrigues and Lauri will return this week, but coach Pete McLeod has also had to reach deep into his squad depth.
"We just had to do what we had to win last week without our halves and probably six or seven guys who've been the group for a long time," McLeod said.
"We'll get a couple back this week but we lose a few as well. The next man in the jersey will just have to do a job.
"We reset ourselves a couple of weeks ago and we had to start winding it back to the basics of what Wests do well to win games.
"We've done that reasonably well over the last couple of weeks. We'll be undermanned again this week, but we'll try and focus on those things to get us home."
A long-awaited return to Parrish Park promises to provide some extra juice given it looked a forlorn hope a month ago.
"A couple of weeks ago we probably thought we wouldn't get on Parrish Park this year," McLeod said.
"It's actually looking a treat and anyone who gets down there will be in for a good day of footy. Whenever a Thirroul jumper runs out against a Wests jumper, it's a tough game.
"You've got to do a lot of things well to win and we'll have to be a lot better than we have been the last couple of weeks to beat them."
Wests and Thirroul won't be the only sides undermanned, with Dapto and Cronulla Caringbah counting the cost of late scuffle last week that's cost them their respective No. 9s for an extended period.
In a busy week that saw seven citations across the competition, Dapto hooker Luke Penney copped five weeks on two charges arising from a skirmish with opposite number James Russell in Cronulla Caringbah's win over the Canaries.
Russell also copped three weeks for his part in the all-in, leaving the Sharks without their skipper, while Canaries winger Ethan Abou-Ghaida copped one.
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