South Sydney enforcer Jai Arrow won't be seeking revenge on Penrith's Viliame Kikau for the brutal shot that brought a premature end to his NRL grand final, saying he and the Rabbitohs are only looking forwards.
The teams will square off on Friday night at BluesBet Stadium for the first time since the Panthers took the 2021 premiership with a two-point win in the decider.
Arrow was caught high in a tackle from Kikau in the first half with doctors ruling him out at halftime with concussion symptoms.
But Arrow says he and the Rabbitohs aren't driven by revenge.
"I got clocked in my first carry, and it obviously didn't end the way that I wanted it to, both for myself and the team as well but it's a new season, a new start," the 26-year-old said on Monday.
"I think that what's happened in the past is in the past and if you talk to people that know me, I'm a pretty easy-going bloke who will leave everything on the field."
After two losses to open the season, Souths stepped up to inflict a 28-16 win over the Sydney Roosters last round.
Arrow said they needed to keep building.
"We're obviously focused on playing good footy this year and building on what we did on Friday night and that's to find our groove," he said.
"Penrith are the only unbeaten side at the moment so we want to go over there Friday night and play some good footy and hopefully knock them off."
He felt the Rabbitohs took a "pack mentality" into the Roosters match and they would need more of the same to keep the Panthers on the back foot.
"We need to turn the big boys around, kick to a corner and do what they did to us in the grand final - they had us coming out from our 20 metre zone and we defended our tryline a fair bit so that'll be our game plan no doubt," he said.
"We've spoken about wanting to have a pack mentality and if you win the middle third of the game, then you go a long way towards winning the game."
