Former Canterbury forward Tony Williams will make his first NRL appearance of the season when he replaces injured second-rower Luke Lewis for Cronulla on Saturday.

Sharks coach Shane Flanagan confirmed Williams will deputise for Lewis, who will miss his second match in a row due to a hamstring strain.

It will be Williams’ first match for the defending premiers since switching from the Bulldogs over the summer, re-igniting a career which looked over at the end of last season.

The Sharks threw Williams a one-year lifeline in November.

“He’s had a few hiccups, had to slave away in our NSW Cup team, and he gets his chance tomorrow. The ball’s in his court now,” Flanagan said on Friday.

The Sharks will look to bounce back against the Wests Tigers after their four-game winning streak was snapped by a shock defeat to Gold Coast last week.

After a tough win over Melbourne in their grand final re-match two weeks ago, Flanagan admitted there were signs of complacency against teams lower on the ladder.

“There’s a smell of it, but I’m pretty sure I shook it out of them this week anyway with my attitude towards their training. Hopefully we see the old Cronulla Sharks tomorrow,” he said.

“We need to get back to our standards. Some of those things are measurable and some aren’t.

“The measurables we were down so we need to pick that up again tomorrow against a Tigers team who’ve come into a bit of form, changed coach, changed attitude.”

The match will be Cleary’s first match at Leichhardt Oval since taking over from Jason Taylor and winning two of their past three games.

“I was actually a Balmain fan back in the day so I used to come here as a kid and throughout my playing and coaching career, it’s always a great venue to come,” Cleary said.

“To be on the receiving end of hopefully some favourable calls would be good tomorrow night.”

STATS THAT MATTER

* The Wests Tigers have won 17 of 27 matches against Cronulla – their best winning record against any team in the competition.

* Despite the history and tradition of playing at Leichhardt Oval, the Tigers have won just five of their past 14 matches at the venue since 2013.

* Cronulla are conceding the most penalties (12.8) and errors (8.4) per game so far this year.