He's gone from Canberra Raiders public enemy No.1 to the inner sanctum.
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But Michael Ennis will have his heart torn - between his former Cronulla teammates he won an NRL premiership with and the Raiders he's joined as a coaching consultant - when the two teams clash at Canberra Stadium on Thursday night.
Ennis can't be there because he has to work his night job, but he will be glued to the TV in the Fox Sports studio.
He forms part of a revamped Green Machine, both on and off the field, having joined the club in the pre-season.
Ennis joked he'd need to wear a balaclava in Canberra, after he riled the Raiders fans with a Viking clap following a Sharks win back in 2016.
But he's embraced the club, where he's been working with the Raiders hookers and fine tuning their attack near the tryline.
"[It's my] first time coaching against them since I finished playing there," Ennis said.
"I've got some great friends in the side, we shared some pretty special stuff together so I always watch those boys and hope they do well.
"But I've got a job at the Raiders and I want our boys to win."
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The Sharks have won their past six encounters against the Raiders at Canberra Stadium, as part of a run of 12 wins from their past 15 visits to the capital.
Having played in three of those wins, Ennis has some insight into why the Sharks have dominated in Canberra in recent years.
He put it down to a Green Machine that fell away at the back end of games against a tenacious Sharks outfit.
But he was hopeful the 2019 Raiders had taken steps to address that. The statistics say they have.
Last year the Raiders were one of the worst sides in the final 20 minutes of games.
But this season they've scored 12 tries in that period and only conceded five - it's now become their most dominant period of the game.
Ennis felt the smaller, more mobile forward pack had played a role in that.
"That's probably been the difference to the Raiders side this year that they haven't had those lapses at the back end of games, it's probably been one of the strengths of their games," Ennis said.
"That's what I'm really intrigued to see [Thursday night] because I know that Canberra have been staying in the fight for the whole contest this year.
"It's a great opportunity for Canberra to show a side like Cronulla, who have previously turned up down in Canberra and had some success, that they're playing a new side."
Ennis has been working with Siliva Havili, who's had to step up as the Raiders main hooker in Josh Hodgson's absence due to a broken thumb.
Havili has been the starting hooker the past two games, but Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was expecting Hodgson to be back in a fortnight.
"We're hoping he'll be back for Parra. He's only just had the brace off and he's started to do some work without the brace on," he said.
The news comes as Havili was named in the Tonga squad to play New Zealand in Auckland on June 22.
Ennis has been impressed with the way Havili has switched back from largely being used in the middle-forward rotation to the ball-playing role.
"He's very skilful and he's a bigger body than most modern-day No.9s, if you think of blokes like Damien Cook," he said.
"But Liva's very crafty and a really strong defender. Sometimes a player like Siliva's just been waiting for an opportunity and he's got that through the unfortunate injury to Hodgo.
"But he's been superb and so has Tommy Starling off the bench."
NRL ROUND 14
Thursday: Canberra Raiders v Cronulla Sharks at Canberra Stadium, 7:50pm.
Raiders squad: 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 2. Bailey Simonsson, 3. Jarrod Croker (C), 4. Nick Cotric, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Siliva Havili, 10. Dunamis Lui, 11. John Bateman, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Joe Tapine. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Emre Guler, 16. Sia Soliola, 17. Ryan Sutton. Reserves: 18. Sam Williams, 19. Royce Hunt, 20. Michael Oldfield, 21. Sebastian Kris.
Sharks squad: 1. Matt Moylan, 2. Sosaia Feki, 3.3 Bronson Xerri, 4. Josh Morris, 5. Josh Dugan, 6. Kyle Flanagan, 7. Chad Townsend, 8. Andrew Fifita, 9. Blayke Brailey, 10. Matt Prior, 11. Briton Nikora, 12. Kurt Capewell, 13. Paul Gallen. Interchange: 14. Wade Graham, 15. Jayson Bukuya, 16. Jack Williams, 17. Braden Hamlin-Uele. Reserves: 18. Aaron Gray, 19. Scott Sorensen, 20. Billy Magoulias, 21. Shaun Johnson.