"I'd only played with him once before,'' Millard said as he prepared for tonight's clash with Melbourne. "We played three NSW Cup games together this year and he played better than me in every one.''

For a man who has suffered the pain of shoulder and knee injuries while the centenary season got off the ground without him, that's a big, selfless statement. But Daryl and Ryan are close - in fact they are flatmates.

Before that, "I was living down in Caringbah with Sonny,'' Daryl recalled. "That's, as in ... Bill Williams''.

"But I've moved back home. Free food, save a bit of money.''

The free food comes because "home'' is mum's place and Ryan is Ryan Millard, Daryl's brother.

The former St George Illawarra centre has always been a step ahead of his younger sibling in football but a shoulder reconstruction and knee problem finally brought them together on the football field, in reserve grade.

"We have a good understanding,'' he said.

Injuries to Andrew Emelio and Willie Tonga helped Daryl Millard make his return to top company in Monday Night Football this week. This was supposed to be his year. A season after he and Ryan, a fullback, transferred from St George Illawarra, all the signs were there.

"I did want to be a regular first grader, make a bit of an impact,'' he shrugs.

But the reconstruction he knew he had to have ruined his pre-season and then a knee injury struck. The season is now a third-over and he's finally got a shot again.

There's still time, of course - starting tonight. And Daryl should be just hitting his straps in October, when he and Ryan will team up again under Arthur Kitinas for Fiji in the World Cup.

"I've got some good friends in the team like Wes Naiqama,'' he said. "Fiji's a bit different from Tonga and Samoa because a big majority of the squad is going to come from Fiji.

"The other sides are full of NRL players. If we can finish above one of them, that will be fantastic. They just want to play hard but the coaching isn't at the level it is here.''