When it comes to challenges facing the Sydney Roosters, taking on ladder leaders St George Illawarra is nothing more than another twist in their NRL road to redemption.

It's not that the Roosters don't respect the Dragons ahead of Sunday's blockbuster meeting at the SCG, it's just that when you are coming off a season in which you collect the club's fifth wooden spoon and spend much of your time cleaning up off-field disasters - the challenges come thick and fast.

"We've had many challenges and it's not just winning footy games - it's fighting back from poor losses and trying to get our discipline right on and off the field," says skipper Braith Anasta.

"It's not just winning games.

"Every game is a challenge for us at the moment, and this year we've set ourselves many challenges and we've reached all of them.

"Regardless of whether we win or lose, it's not the end of the world."

That may well be the case, but a win over the Dragons will have the Roosters on top of the world in relation to premiership favouritism.

Where as the Dragons have lost three of their last four to have the critics again questioning their title credentials, the Roosters have hit form and are riding a five-game winning streak.

That's as many games as the club won in it's entire 2009 campaign - highlighting just how far they have come.

"It's still there for sure," halfback Mitchell Pearce says of the memory of the 2009 disaster.

"That's probably why you appreciate winning and being up the top of the ladder a bit more.

"(Losing regularly) certainly gets depressing ... the week's nowhere near as much fun as when you have a win and last year there wasn't much winning at all and there was plenty of losing and the whole place was a bit down."

But things are certainly looking brighter out at Bondi Junction these days, with Sunday's match set to go close to filling out the SCG.

And in an ominous warning to the Roosters' rivals - the tri colours have only just begun.

"I don't think we've reached our potential yet - a lot of people are talking about whether we're peaking but we're not really worried about it," Anasta said.

"The first thing Smithy (coach Brian Smith) said is 'listen, we're going to come good the back end of the year'.

"It was like he was really relaxed the first part of the year and he really believed we'd fire up the second half of the year ... he's pretty much hit the nail on the head and you can see a bit of a buzz about him at the moment, you can see he's a bit excited."

Sunday's match will be the 38th between Smith and Dragons coach Wayne Bennett - who will become the second man after Tim Sheens to reach the 600 games milestone in the NRL.

Bennett currently leads the head to head battle 22-15, the Dragons mentor desperate to add to his tally as the red and whites look to get their premiership campaign back on track.

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