St George Illawarra prop Paul Vaughan will bring up his 100th NRL game on Sunday afternoon against the Newcastle Knights at UOW Jubilee Oval, Kogarah.
Vaughan – who many have tipped to be one of the buys of the year competition-wide – has enjoyed a huge start to his Dragons career.
Fitting in nicely within the Dragons' front row rotation that also includes Russell Packer, Leeson Ah Mau and Tariq Sims, Vaughan has made the most of his time in the Red V jumper since joining from the Raiders.
While the Dragons' have lost their past two games, it didn't dim Vaughan's spirits in regards to his latest milestone.
"It's very exciting and pleasing to get that little milestone for myself," the Gungahlin Bulls junior said.
"I'm pretty happy with how my form has been personally this year. The boys collectively have been playing pretty well too.
"The last couple of weeks we have fallen away a little bit. But we will correct our wrongs, and I'm sure we will finish strong in the back end of the season."
Vaughan was adamant that the Dragons' recent losses wouldn't define the season that's been so far.
"I think it would be pretty naive to think that you are going to go through the season without any hiccups. You just have to weather the storm," Vaughan said.
"It's a real important block for us the next couple of week. We have two weeks and a bye where we can earn some crucial competition points if we can string some games together.
"Getting some boys back and freshened up for the back end of the season, it will put ourselves in really good stead for the back end of the season."
The 26-year-old also refused to take the Newcastle Knights lightly this weekend, ahead of the third-annual Alex McKinnon Cup.
"I've talked to the boys about how [Newcastle] have shown that they can keep up and stay in games for long periods of time," Vaughan said.
"They have had a couple of rough losses this year but I'm going up against my good mate Mitch Barnett this weekend so it will be a good fun.
"Hopefully we can give a good round performance."
