South Sydney have put Penrith's young halves on notice, making no secret of the fact they want to get physical and pressure the inexperienced duo.
Already without Dylan Edwards (groin), the Panthers must decide whether to put Blaize Talagi or Brad Schneider next to Jack Cole in the halves against the Rabbitohs.
Thursday's clash will mark only the sixth game Penrith have entered without at least one of Edwards, Nathan Cleary or Jarome Luai since the start of 2020.
Without the majority of their key creative players the Panthers have won just one of those previous five games, averaging just 10.4 points per match.
There were signs of some improvement on that last week in Melbourne, with Penrith still managing to put 24 points on after Cleary went off the field.
Regardless Souths did well to pressure St George Illawarra's Lachlan Ilias and Kyle Flanagan a fortnight ago, with that the difference in their victory.
And lock Tallis Duncan said the Rabbitohs would be making a point to put the same physicality into Penrith's duo, whoever the four-time defending premiers pick.
"We always want to put pressure on halves. We know how much of the game they control. We always want to do that," Duncan said.
"When we execute our plans in defence we get at their three-in and halves and putting pressure on them.
"We spoke about looking at them as a team, more so than what individuals are in or out.
"But we definitely want to be physical and take the challenge to them."
South Sydney had a light session on Monday, managing a five-day turnaround from Saturday's loss to Cronulla into their home clash with the Panthers.
Alex Johnston did not train, and while Wayne Bennett suggested the winger could return this week there is every chance that could be through the NSW Cup.
Severely undermanned and able to go 2-0 with almost half their salary-cap missing, the Rabbitohs insist there were positives from outscoring the Sharks in the second half of Saturday's 27-12 loss.
"We take confidence from that," prop Davvy Moale said.
"We might have just withered away previously and given the game up. It could have been a ridiculous score, but we kept in the fight."
Meanwhile the Bunnies are continuing to investigate a sideline incident between their mascot Reggie the Rabbit and a nine-year-old fan at Shark Park.
Video appeared to show Charlie Gallico pushing the young boy on the chin before security moved between them.
"Reggie is a good person and I know the club will deal with that. We all love Reggie," Moale said.
