WITH only three matches potentially left in his St George Illawarra career, former Shellharbour Sharks Euan Aitken, who will join the Warriors from 2021, intends to make the most of every single one of them.
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The first of those three will be Saturday's round 18 clash with the Raiders, which will be the 25-year-old's final one for the Red V at WIN Stadium.
"I've been passionate about this club since I first pulled on the jersey and that will never change," Aitken said.
"I'm a competitive player and want to play first grade each and every week and I'd like to finish my time here at the club doing so.
"Although there's a potential for them to look to the future, with me not being here next year, I feel as though I'm playing strong enough to warrant selection in the 17.
"Although we won't get a chance to play finals, which I had hoped for, I'll be doing everything I can over the next few games to finish on a positive note - especially with Saturday being my last at WIN Stadium for the club."
This clash presents a chance for the Merimbula-Pambula product and his side to rebound after a couple of tough losses to Titans and Cowboys.
"Both losses, especially the weekend's one against the Cowboys, were tough to swallow," Aitken said.
"We were the better team on both occasions but fundamental errors throughout the game hurt us.
"We all know we could have won those two games, which is frustrating - it sort of optimises our season.
"However, we are looking forward to bouncing back this Saturday against the Raiders."
In their earlier meeting with the green machine on July 3, the Dragons lost 22-16, which gives Aitken plenty of confidence they can defeat their fifth-placed rival.
"We all know we could have won that game down in Canberra if not for our poor start," he said.
"If we fix that, it'll give us a much better chance to get the desired result."
The former NSW Country representative had a particularly strong performance against the Raiders, running for 222 metres while producing 10 tackle breaks, one try assist and one line break.
"Sometimes in games, you just get into that zone and feel it, which I obviously did last game against Canberra," he said.
"However, my main aim is to play good footy each time I step onto the park - I want to be hard to tackle and not allow any tries down by edge."
In terms of this week's game, kicking off at 3pm, Aitken will line up against make-shift centre Jordan Rapana.
"We've discussed a couple of things at training about potentially exploiting the Raiders in certain areas of the field," he said.
"We know our attack will come, rather concentrating on our defence and restricting their attacking weapons.
"Our attitude on that end has been a focus this week and if we improve that, I'm sure our attack will flow from that and we will score plenty of points."