Should he struggle to put weight on his ankle, de Belin will still travel north with the team and be given every opportunity to start in the Dragons' elimination final against Brisbane. De Belin has already proven he can play with painkilling injections, which he received for several weeks as he battled a hip injury leading up to the first game of this year's State of Origin series. He spoke openly about how much pain he was in, especially during the first two Origin matches, but did not want to disappoint his club or state at the time. Dragons centre Euan Aitken is also expected to test out his hamstring on Thursday in a bid to prove his fitness for the clash against the Broncos. St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor will be sweating on the fitness of de Belin, who will play a key role in stopping the monster Brisbane pack. He named him in the No.13 jersey, with Aitken in the No.19 and teen rookie Zac Lomax in the centres. Lomax was seen practising goalkicking with captain Gareth Widdop after training.

De Belin's match-up in the middle with chief Broncos and Queensland antagonist Josh McGuire will be one of the highlights. De Belin and Tariq Sims were left with emotional hangovers after their first Origin campaigns but that representative experience should now benefit the Dragons, given they know what to expect from 50,000 Queenslanders booing their every move. Tyson Frizell said the Dragons needed de Belin's hulking presence on the field, particularly some of his shots in defence "He's hobbling around at the moment but we'll give him every opportunity to play on the weekend," Frizell said. "He's one of our enforcers in defence and we'll need him. If it's the worst-case scenario and he doesn't play, we'll all have to carry a bit of his load.

"He was able to play out the whole game on the weekend. I'm not sure if it's precautionary. Hopefully he'll be right." Frizell won the Origin series this year with NSW and the World Cup with Australia late last year but has only played in the one NRL finals game. No stranger to big stage, he was confident the Origin experience for de Belin and Sims would be a bonus this weekend. "But not many of us have played in the finals games, and the Broncos have played nearly every year," Frizell said.

"It's awesome to be playing footy at this time of year. I've only played the one [finals] game. "We want to play as well as we can this week and hopefully go the whole way. I'd give up those [rep jerseys] to win premierships." Prop Jeremy Latimore said the Dragons' Origin players who may have suffered post-series "tiredness" would "be bouncing come Sunday". As for the parochial Brisbane crowd, Latimore said: "They're a passionate group up there, they'll be right behind the Broncos. They're a Wayne Bennett-coached team and he sprinkles his magic dust at this time of year. You've sort of seen that over the past month with the way they're playing. "They're probably the form team of the competition with Cronulla. It's an exciting finals series. Looking at the game this weekend. You could pick a team and be 0-4 or 4-0, you just don't know.''

The Dragons defended well against the Knights but did cough up plenty of ball. Frizell said his side had been guilty of "schoolboy errors" in recent weeks. They are $3.60 to beat the Broncos, making them the biggest outsiders with bookies for the opening weekend of the finals.