Andrew Webster has described St George Illawarra as the "giant killers" of the NRL as the Warriors fight to get their season back on track against the mercurial Dragons.
A three-game losing streak has forced the Warriors out of the top four ahead of Friday's game in Auckland, where another defeat could leave them as low as seventh to finish the weekend.
Webster is wary of an 11th-placed Dragons side that is fighting for its own season, with the Saints likely needing to win their remaining four games to have any chance of making good on their slim top-eight hopes.
The Dragons are coming off back-to-back wins over finals-bound Cronulla and Canberra, and upset fellow top sides Melbourne and Brisbane earlier in the season.
Nine of their 12 losses this year have been by a single-figure margin, including a one-point defeat to the Warriors during the Kiwi side's hot start to the season.
"(The Dragons) have been in almost every contest. They're like the giant killers of the competition," said Warriors coach Webster.
"They're probably the best team that aren't in the eight at knocking off top-four teams. They've beaten the Storm, they've beaten the Raiders, Sharks. They've been very good at that this year."
The Warriors' season is threatening to unravel at the worst possible time, with the injury-hit Kiwis still not guaranteed to play finals despite spending 16 consecutive rounds in the top four before last week.
The clash with the Dragons comes before similarly intriguing fixtures against Gold Coast and Parramatta, who will both miss finals but have shown promise in recent weeks.
Last week's loss to premiership hopefuls Canterbury marked the first time this season that the Warriors failed to register a line break or record 1000 metres in a game.
But one more win is likely to punch the Warriors' top-eight ticket and Webster is remaining positive.
"We'd obviously like to be doing some things better, but we've been really consistent with it," he said.
"There's always accountability at our place.
'I thought our commitment and our contact in going after the opposition (last week) was really good."
Dragons forward Jack de Belin will become the fourth man to play 250 games for the joint venture on Friday night, joining Ben Hornby, Ben Creagh and Jason Nightingale in the elite club.