Penrith have suffered a fresh blow at fullback for their grand-final rematch against Melbourne, as they attempt to return to the brick-wall defence that won them four straight premierships.
Already without Dylan Edwards for up to three weeks, the Panthers lost their back-up fullback Daine Laurie to an undisclosed injury on Wednesday.
Thomas Jenkins has now been named to play at the back against the Storm, while Blaize Talagi looms as an option while still on an extended bench.
Whoever does come into the side will need to help turn Penrith's defence around, after leaking 60 points in the first two rounds of 2025.
That haul in a first-up win over Cronulla and shock loss to the Sydney Roosters has made for Penrith's worst defensive fortnight since before their dynasty began in 2020.
Penrith have already let in as many points in 2025 as they did the first nine rounds of 2021, while it also took five games to concede 60 points in 2023.
And players are aware that their defence needs to improve against Melbourne, expecting the Storm to want revenge in Thursday night's grand final rematch.
"We've averaged 30 points against. We understand that's not good enough as a playing group," prop Lindsay Smith said.
"There's things that we need to do to combat that. That grand final was won on defence.
"So trying to get back to that would be certainly a step in the right direction."
Smith said the fact it was early in the season could not be used as an excuse for Penrith, or put the issues down to new combinations.
"That's an excuse sometimes, and I think that gets overplayed," Smith said.
"When you have losses early in the season there's a reason behind it. You've got to learn from that.
"You can't just think about it being early in the season and forget about it.
"Because at the end of the day if you keep thinking like that you're going to keep losing. So we've got to address it and then move on."
Penrith's start to the season left them at $3.35 with bookmakers on Wednesday for the grand-final rematch, suggesting they are considered less than a 30 per cent chance of victory.
With the exception of a final-round mass resting of players in 2022, the Panthers haven't been at such long odds for a game since upsetting the Storm 10-6 in the 2021 preliminary final.
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary said he could understand why people might not expect his side to beat Melbourne, but was not concerned.
"I get it this week, I get what people might be thinking," Cleary said.
"But it's not our job to worry about that, it's our job to worry about performing well and that's all we worry about.
"We only worry about what we can do. We're confident in what we can deliver, but we're also early into a new season and a new team with new circumstances.
"We're just fully focused on putting our best possible performance out there against Melbourne."
