Wests recruit Ngangarra Barker will have the rare experience of debuting for his new club against the team he just left, South Newcastle, when the two sides meet at Harker Oval on Saturday.
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Barker, who turned out for the Lions in recent weeks, scoring a double in round five, has made a mid-season switch to the Rosellas and reunited with coach Rick Stone, who he previously played under at Burleigh Bears.
"He wanted to play a couple of different positions and maybe the opportunity there wasn't as forthcoming," Stone said of picking up the versatile back. "He is going to play fullback this week, our fullback Hayden Loughrey hurt his knee at training ... and is probably going to miss a couple of weeks. So it's been a timely inclusion."
Stone is hoping Barker, 26, can add some attacking punch to Wests, who are sixth after two wins, three losses and a bye. The are equal on points with Souths (seventh) and Lakes (eighth).
"When I was in the Queensland Cup, he had a season with us at Burleigh, and then he played for a couple of other Queensland Cup teams after," Stone said.
"But he is back this year. So I had a relationship with Ngangarra and he reached out to me a couple of weeks ago. We probably needed a couple of strike players, and Ngangarra is a genuine try-scorer. That's what he can bring to the team and hopefully he can help us in that area the next few weeks."
Stone admitted it was "pretty unique" for a player to transfer clubs and immediately face their old side.
"I don't know how many times it's happened," he said.
"You see it a little bit in the NRL, when blokes pop over before the 30th of June, and I guess we're no different."
Wests return home after a 17-14 loss to Lakes before the competition break last week. Their wins have been over lowly Northern and Kurri.
"Were not a superstar team," Stone said. "We're still a work in progress; new players getting to know the coach, and each other.
"Our error-rate has killed us. In the first six games, we made an average 13 errors a game. Even in local footy, that's too many to be able to be consistent and challenge.
"Defensively we haven't been too bad, we haven't leaked a lot of points, but offensively a bit clunky, so that's something we tried to work on the past fortnight."
For Souths, Harry Van Dartel and Reeve Howard have been named to return in the centres, along with Jarom Haines at five-eighth.
The Lions are coming off consecutive victories of Kurri (40-16) and Lakes (22-20).
In other 3pm games Saturday, second-placed Maitland are at home for the first time in more than a month and will be out to bounce back from their first loss of the season with a win over Macquarie, who sit fourth.
After also losing their first game last round, third-placed Wyong host cellar-dwellars Northern, who are still searching for a win in their return campaign.
Central (ninth) will be hoping to keep touch with the mid-table sides when they host Lakes in a local derby at 3pm on Sunday.
Cessnock, Kurri and The Entrance have the bye.
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