St George Illawarra will turn to what they know best and attempt to strangle the life out of Melbourne when Beau Scott replaces injured centre Mark Gasnier in Friday night's blockbuster at AAMI Park.

Gasnier was ruled out on Thursday, as he continues to struggle with a hip flexor injury, after a gruelling fitness test that involved him running up and down the hill at WIN Jubilee Oval.

Compounding the uncertainty for the desperate Dragons is winger Brett Morris' inability to fly to Melbourne with the side with his partner due to give birth.

While Bronx Goodwin filled in for Morris at training on Thursday, Scott ran in Gasnier's right centre spot ahead of the NSW representative's replacement last week, Kyle Stanley.

"There's plenty of players who'll step in and fill his shoes," backrower Ben Creagh told reporters on Thursday.

"I think Beauy will play out there, Matty Prior will go into the back row, that's what will happen tomorrow night.

"I don't think we can worry too much at the moment about losing a player.

"We've just got to worry about getting the team right and getting a good 80 minutes in."

The move signals a back-to-basics approach from coach Wayne Bennett, who took Scott from fringe first-grader to State of Origin centre in his first year in charge of the Dragons.

Scott, who shifted to the backrow to accommodate Gasnier's return to the club from rugby union in mid 2010, has been one of the cornerstone's of the suffocating defensive style that has netted two minor premierships and a grand final victory.

Storm captain Cameron Smith said his side had been preparing for Gasnier to return after missing the Dragons' fourth straight loss, 20-12 to the Sydney Roosters last Sunday.

"Gasnier is a world-class player, there's no doubt about that," Smith said.

"He's a go-to man on their right side and he's got a great combination with the players around him.

"The coaches prepared us like we're playing the best side available, and we're going out expecting them to play like they did at the start of the year."

St George Illawarra can be leapfrogged by the Warriors and Wests Tigers and fall as low as seventh if they can't overcome the Storm, who have won 10 of the past 12 games between the clubs.

The Dragons are yet to play at AAMI Park but last won in Melbourne in 1999.

The brightest spot in their record of two wins from their past 10 games was the 24-6 victory over second-placed Manly in round 16.

"Our defence was great that night. I thought we were very committed, everyone trusted each other and, if someone missed a tackle, someone was there to clean up the mess," Creagh said.

Asked if that trust was still there, Creagh said: "It's always there, it's just some games it's not, but I'm sure it's back now.

"We're always a pretty honest bunch of guys even when we are having patches of winning games.

"Nothing's changed there."

Melbourne, who are searching for a club record 12th straight win, will be without Test representative Cooper Cronk (ankle), while five-eighth Maurice Blair (shoulder) and centre Dane Nielsen (ankle) were named this week despite suffering injuries in last weekend's 40-16 win over Gold Coast.

Fullback Billy Slater plays his 200th game.

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