For NRL premiers St George Illawarra, pressure is so last year.

The Dragons say the expectations to perform in this year's finals series are nothing compared with 2010, when they broke a 31-year premiership drought.

Labelled "chokers" after their star-studded outfits of 2005-06 fell one game short of the grand final, they finally shook off the unwanted tag with victory over the Sydney Roosters.

They face the competition's form side the Wests Tigers in the opening qualifying final at ANZ Stadium on Friday night needing a win to guarantee they'll progress beyond week one.

"There's certainly less pressure on us," experienced hooker Dean Young told reporters on Thursday.

"I don't know if there's been any club under the amount of pressure the Dragons were, it's such a famous club.

"We'd been there a couple of times before and failed and especially the year before (2009), we went bang-bang straight out the back door.

"We were there again (last year), same game, and if we didn't get to the grand final it would have been hard for the club to turn it around."

A title defence looked promising when Wayne Bennett's side won nine of their opening 10 games this year despite a gruelling trip to the UK for the World Club Challenge.

But the State of Origin period hit hard and the Dragons lost eight of 10 before finishing the regular season with wins over the Warriors and Penrith.

Young said the experience of 2010 had given them the belief they could become the first side to win back-to-back titles in a unified competition since 1992-93.

"It certainly does, there's great belief in this side and when you were all kicking us down about eight weeks ago there was still belief there and we knew we could turn it around," he said.

"We're more experienced because we've been in this situation before and succeeded in this situation.

"It gives you that experience that, when you're under the pump, hopefully you know how to deal with it."

Young said the premiers' five-match losing streak before the wins of the past two weeks hadn't felt like a form slump.

"Five losses doesn't look pretty but I don't know whether it was a slump," he said.

"The performances were pretty good but we just couldn't get the win.

"We've paid the price for getting in the situation we're at and we're happy with where we're at."

The NRL said on Thursday 40,000 tickets had already been sold to the blockbuster match.

The Tigers have made no secret of the fact they are spurred by last year's 13-12 loss to the Dragons in the second last week of the season.

"You always remember those games," Tigers captain Robbie Farah said.

"Hopefully we're not in that position again where we're sitting in a dressing room pretty angry after a one-point loss."

Under the NRL's drama-guaranteed McIntyre finals system, the loser will need to wait on other results over the weekend to know if they will live to fight another day.

The two lowest ranked losers in the top eight bow out after week one.

"You don't want to lose and be dead man walking," Young said.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP