He plays a straight bat better than most, but even Kyle Flanagan isn't trying to sell the idea he has no point to prove against the Bulldogs on Thursday.
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The Dragons will head into the clash refreshed from a Magic-Round bye, pitting Flanagan against the club with which he endured a roller coaster three years before linking with father Shane in Wollongong this season.
It ended a tumultuous time at Belmore - albeit not of his own making - first under Trent Barrett, and then incumbent Dogs coach Cameron Ciraldo.
Brought to the Bulldogs as a foundational chip in the No. 7 jumper, his time there finished as a bench utility last season, primarily at dummy-half.
Having attracted his fair share of scrutiny since emerging in the top grade, the 25-year-old isn't prone to drawing attention to himself, but he admits he'll take the field with some extra impetus on Thursday.
"You can spin it any way you want, but when you're coming against your old club you want to play well," Flanagan told the Mercury.
"There's obviously a few sides to changing clubs, but I look back on my time there and I've got a lot of mates that I want to see succeed in their own journey.
"A lot of staff there put a lot of work into me, so you've got to look at the positives most of the time, but I'm looking forward to playing well [against them].
"I'll probably just go back to what my strengths are and nailing my role. It's probably not about proving people wrong, it's proving myself right."
Coach Shane Flanagan's publicly stated he brought Kyle to the Dragons with a plan to continue his transition to becoming a dummy-half.
Circumstances - chiefly the de-registration of Talatau Amone - have seen him instead partner Ben Hunt in the halves through the opening 10 games of the season.
The complementary role, and pressure release, was something most tipped Flanagan to benefit from. He says it's proven the reality.
"I definitely think so," he said.
"One of the reasons I came here was just to focus on myself and my own role where [the focus] wasn't about me.
"I went to the Bulldogs as a young guy and I probably thought I was ready to lead a team around. Obviously when you wear the number seven, that [pressure] comes with the jersey.
"One thing I've learned so far in my career is it's a tough job to win football games in the NRL and to be consistent every week.
"In years gone by I probably tried to take a lot of the weight on my shoulders where, here at the Dragons, I'm just focused on doing my job and complementing the team."
The Dragons remain in the market for a marquee half, and also open to extending Hunt's tenure at the club beyond next season.
It leaves Flanagan unsure as to whether a long-term switch to the hooking role remains in his future, but he's loving life as full-time half again.
"I obviously enjoy playing in the halves," he said.
"I played a lot of my junior footy there and I want to continue to evolve. I'm really enjoying playing alongside Benny and the spine we've got going at the moment.
"I really narrowed my focus going into the first few rounds about just doing my job, nailing that and working on my defence, kick chase and those things. I think it's been a good start.
"As I've said from the start, my sole focus is on the team winning. That's all I want, team success. I think that's probably had a correlation with my own form.
"I'm not too sure what is around the corner, but I'm happy and I'm playing good footy. I'll play whatever role I have to."
What is around the corner on the team front is hard to predict for the Dragons faithful, with a 5-5 ledger not telling the story of the wild fluctuations between their side's best and worst through 10 rounds.
Flanagan is with them in ruing a couple that got away, but is confident the Dragons are tracking well towards the ultimate goal.
"Five and five is probably a good start for the club on where it's been in the last couple of years," Flanagan said.
"A few of those games that we lost, particularly the Cowboys game at Kogarah, I think that one really got away from us. If we go into halftime up by a couple of tries it's a different ball game.
"We played Newcastle up in a hurricane, we probably didn't play our best that night and and it was [still] a bounce of the ball.
"We would've have liked a few more wins in that regard, but we're looking forward to the next few we've got coming up.
"We're OK with that start, but we're striving for big goals and to play semi-finals at the end of the year."
Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
