Knights skipper Kurt Gidley is expecting the unexpected when Cronulla X-factor Ben Barba returns from suspension to play against Newcastle at Remondis Stadium on Friday night.

Barba has served a two-match ban for two charges – a grade-one dangerous contact and a grade-one dangerous throw – from the 36-18 away loss to Melbourne a fortnight ago. The 2012 Dally M medallist struggled to find his feet at five-eighth in his first three games for Cronulla, his third club in as many seasons, which they lost to the Raiders, Broncos and Storm.

In his absence, 20-year-old Jack Bird wore the No.6 jersey and scored two tries and set up another as the Sharks upset the Roosters 20-12 on Sunday to register their first win.

Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan named the same starting 13 and included Barba on the bench for the game against the Knights, who suffered their first loss of the season when shut out 13-0 by the Dragons at Hunter Stadium on Saturday night.

"We haven't really spoken a great deal about Ben," Gidley said. "We know he's missed the past couple of weeks and he'll probably come on in some sort of hybrid role. It could be in the halves or at fullback, or it could be just coming on and sniffing around in any part of the field.

"I suppose that's the dangerous part, where he can come on and have a free rein and be floating around anywhere on the field. We need to nominate him, and talk about where he is on the field and make sure we're aware that he is on the field."

Prop Korbin Sims, who was also returning from a two-game suspension, indicated Barba was one of several Cronulla players the Knights had nominated as potential game-breakers. "Ben Barba, he's a world-class player and a great player in his own right," Sims said. "He's going to be coming off the bench, so who knows where he's going to slot in.

"He's really dangerous so we're just going to have to keep our wits about us when he comes on the field and just what position he's going to play. We've watched a couple of their strike players this morning in our video session, so we're going to be focused on shutting down some of those key players. If we can shut down their key players and move the ball around ourselves and play our normal brand of football, we'll be able to get the win."

Knights coach Rick Stone is yet to finalise his 17 but utility Tyler Randell is likely to be the player omitted from the five-man bench if there are no late injury concerns. That will leave utility back Sione Mata'utia to continue his role of relieving Gidley at fullback while the captain gives dummy half Adam Clydsdale a break, and forwards Joseph Tapine, Jack Stockwell and David Fa'alogo to rotate with the pack starters.

Cronulla are chasing their first home win in almost a year. They have lost a club-record 10 straight at Shark Park since beating Penrith 24-20 there on April 26 last year. Gidley said that would matter little on Friday night, and he also disregarded Newcastle's streak of four successive wins on Cronulla's home ground.

"That doesn't come into play," Gidley said. "Every week is a challenge in the NRL, every game's tough, and I don't believe there's any harder team than the next team.

"You've got to be on your game for every week. That's why the game's so great these days. Every week is a challenge and you've got to be up for it physically and mentally. I know we won there last year but before that, I'm not too aware of it. I don't live in the past about where we win or where we lose ...

"Last week we lost at home, and that was a disappointing one because we'd had two really good home games ... and showed our fans what we're about this year, and we didn't live up to that last week. It's about this week this week. I'm not worried about what happened there last year or the year before.

"We need to get off to a good start in the game and make sure we come home with two points."