THE numbers speak for themselves.
One loss out of 13 games this season. Seven losses out of 64 games over the past three years.
There's not a team in the NRL who have been as consistent as Penrith Panthers in that period of time. Not even Melbourne Storm.
It's no surprise that the Panthers are not only the reigning champions, but two wins clear in the race for this year's minor premiership.
And somehow we have to find a way to beat them at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
To do that, we have to first get our heads around what makes the Panthers so good.
Obviously they have a lot of great players. Six Panthers - Brian To'o, Stephen Crichton, Jarome Luai, Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Liam Martin - were in the NSW squad for Origin I last night, while Api Koroisau was on the extended bench.
That's the most Origin players from any club.
So there is no doubting how much talent they have, but what really makes them successful is how hard they work, and how they get the little things right, time after time.
Penrith just love to get in the grind, going set for set until the opposition crack.
They very rarely appear panic or rushed. They just stick to the basics over and over, and then once they find a weakness they are ruthless in exploiting it.
And when they are defending, they make you work for every metre, let alone every point.
We have to be ready for that on Sunday and try to beat them at their own game.
We have to be patient and stay with them, and hopefully with a bit of luck their Origin players might be a bit fatigued backing up after the series opener.
It's a massive game for us.
We know the first half or our season hasn't been ideal. We've had a tough run with injuries and a pretty brutal draw, but we still believe we can get on a roll and make the finals.
We did it last year, and there's no reason we can't do it again.
A win against the premiers would be just what we need as a launchpad.
We'll probably be big underdogs but I know the boys are taking a lot of confidence out of our 38-20 loss to Penrith in round three.
The scoreline might suggest they won easily that day, but the Panthers scored two tries in the final five minutes.
We had a number of guys out with injury, including Kalyn Ponga and myself, and then we lost Mitch Barnett to a send-off, which left us a man down for nearly 50 minutes.
Even after Barney got sent off, we still scored three tries against the best defensive team in the NRL.
They're a great side, sure. But they're not unbeatable. And hopefully we can prove that in front of a big crowd on Sunday. See you there.
