The ugly side of not having stand-alone weekends for State of Origin will show its face on Friday night with NRL premiers St George Illawarra forced to field a side barely recognisable to the one which won last year's title.

The Dragons will run out just six players who played in their breakthrough 2010 grand final triumph when they host Gold Coast at WIN Jubilee Oval on Friday night - their side ravaged by Origin commitments and injury.

So dire is their predicament that the Dragons have called Reece Simmonds out of retirement to play his first NRL game in almost four years, while two other players have been handed their first top grade game in the red and white.

Heading the list of those unavailable for selection are the Dragons' six Origin representatives Jamie Soward, Mark Gasnier, Darius Boyd, Beau Scott, Ben Creagh and Trent Merrin.

The situation is compounded by the absence of injured trio Matt Cooper, Brett Morris and Kyle Stanley.

Morris would have retained his place in the NSW for Origin II had he not injured his hamstring while Cooper knocked back an opportunity to come out of representative retirement to play for the Blues in the series opener.

"It's more a good opportunity for people like me waiting to get a chance," said rookie forward Jack Bosden, who will start alongside Michael Greenfield and Adam Cuthbertson in the backrow.

"When these weeks come up you just want to get out there and impress and not let the boys down most of all.

"Just do your job in the team and hopefully not let anyone in the team down."

Who can felt let down however are the fans, robbed of the chance to see the Dragons field anything close to their best side.

While the presence of a few key players and the magic of master coach Wayne Bennett will no doubt ensure the Dragons remain competitive against a side currently last on the ladder, the match loses plenty of appeal due to the absence of a throng on topline players.

The Dragons-Titans game is not the only one adversely affected by Origin call-ups, with the top-four battle between North Queensland and Manly also diminished in status with the Cowboys to be without gun duo Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott.

The debate over stand-alone matches is two-fold - the bid to ease fears of player burnout while also maintaining the credibility of the club matches.

The most recent push has been for Monday night Origin games but that would not do anything to solve dilemmas like the one facing the Dragons this week.

"Who knows what we should do, it goes round and round and round," Manly coach Des Hasler said of when Origin should be played.

"I think there is a number of different scenarios, but as soon as they get themselves sorted the better."

With the Dragons unbeaten in their last ten matches, Bosden said the expectation to perform would not be lowered by the long list of unavailabilities.

This despite a centre combination featuring Matt Prior and debutant Alex McKinnon - both of whom normally play in the second row.

"We've still got a lot of quality players still within the team - players like Ben Hornby, Dean Young and Nathan Fien - they're all really experienced players," Bosden said.

"We're going out there hoping just to play good football and hopefully the result comes our way."

The lunacy of the situation facing the Dragons was highlighted by the goalkicking competition staged between Hornby and Fien at training on Tuesday.

Fien has never kicked for goal in his NRL career while Hornby has just seven goals in more than 230 NRL games, the Dragons without their first two options in Jamie Soward and Stanley.

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