St George Illawarra to be tough up the middle vows enforcer Josh Kerr

That is the identity a St George Illawarra Dragons forward pack stung by criticism in the past, is trying to develop and instil this season.

The Dragons forwards showed their toughness against the Gold Coast Titans and for the majority of their last-start loss to the Brisbane Broncos.

But St George Illawarra enforcer Josh Kerr said the Dragons could ill afford to fade out late in their rivalry round clash against the Cronulla Sharks on Sunday night.

Toby Couchman returns from a one-week concussion layoff on the bench, with Michael Molo dropping to the reserves in the only change. Talatau Amone is also on the reserves list.

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"Our identity at the moment is trying to be tough in the middle," Kerr, who was among the Dragons best in their 40-18 loss to the Broncos, said.

"That was probably the biggest disappointment last weekend because we fell away from what we wanted to do and who we want to be so we are trying to build our team around our forward pack in a sense but not limiting it to that.

"Look I think the starting middles, Blocker [Blake Lawrie] and Frank [Molo], laid a really good platform for us. It was pretty tough. It was a bit of an arm wrestle there for a long time.

"Their starting forwards group, I think they all played for Australia in the World Cup, so they're pretty handy, so for our boys to go up against them and do a job for that first 20-30 minutes is really impressive.

"When I get on I'm just trying to simplify my game, just doing what's best for the team and not myself. I just want to run hard and try and get a quick play the ball for our outside backs.

"At the moment, the last two weeks its been working so I'm just going to try and do that again.

"It is a very good feeling if you do a good run and quick play the ball. It gives the team plenty of momentum.

"I think last week I did one and [Tyrell Sloan] Sloany scored. It was a huge moment.

"I think us as middles are just simplifying our games to do that for our team because we want to build our identity at the start of the year.

"I know everyone wants to hype [the Sharks game] up as a nice big rivalry round but for us we still need to build our identity because that's who we want to be at the back end of the season. We don't want to be focusing too much on who they've got or what kind of team or what round it is, it's more us being us and working towards what we want to be."

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But in saying that, the 27-year-old has learned from history to expect a tough, physical encounter against the Sharks at Kogarah.

"It is so crazy, we play against these other teams and great forward packs but I feel like whenever we play the Sharks, for me personally it is probably the most physical games that I have played," Kerr said.

"It is a rivalry round and they are a great team who have a lot of X-factor around the park and I think Nicho [Hynes] might be back but for us we just want to build our identity.

"It is only the start of the season and we sort of fell off where we wanted to be last week. For 70 minutes of the game, probably more like 60, we were doing what we wanted to do. We fell away from it and you see what happened at the end of the game.

"We have to be better for longer against the Sharks.

"They always come out physical and mean. We will let our actions do the talking on the weekend."

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