With their grip on a top-eight spot loosening after consecutive losses, Sharks prop Toby Rudolf has called on his teammates to make a statement against the team they are looking to emulate.
Back-to-back premiers Penrith are the benchmark by which all teams are measured, and Rudolf said the Sharks must turn things around “in remarkable fashion” against Ivan Cleary’s men if they are to put their campaign back on track.
Having slipped from third to sixth on the back of losses to the Warriors and Sea Eagles, the Sharks have a huge month coming up with clashes against the Panthers, Rabbitohs, Titans and Cowboys.
“It’s our team now and our time to face that adversity together and come through it together,” Rudolf said.
“This team has been riding high for the last two years and almost coasting it’s fair to say but this is a new challenge for all of us.
“With this new side and the experience we have lost in guys like [Aiden] Tolman and [Andrew] Fifita, and in years gone by [Paul] Gallen and [Matt] Prior, it’s our time now and we have to take ownership.
Panthers v Sharks: Round 22
“Every week is a new audition to put what we’ve been talking about to the test and there’s no better test than the two-time defending premiers.
“That’s the team we want to emulate and we want to be. We want to be up there on grand final day and hold the shield above our heads.”
If the Sharks are to raise the premiership trophy for just the second time in their history, they’ll have to do it without co-captain Dale Finucane, who is out for the rest of the season due to a biceps injury.
A veteran of six grand finals with Melbourne and Canterbury, Finucane’s big-game experience and hard edge will be sorely missed, but Rudolf is adamant the Sharks pack can stand up in his absence.
“Dale is our forward leader, he’s our energy leader, he’s our aggression but that’s not to say we can’t all rise up and fill the gap,” Rudolf said.
“We all share it [the responsibility]. We’ve got a good core young group of boys, other than Cam McInnes and Wade Graham, the rest of us are all around that 60-70 game mark and it’s time for this pack to show what we’ve got.
“It’s never nice to hear people say we are soft and that we let in too many tries and our defence isn’t where it should be.
“We are a defensive club, we may not have shown it the last few weeks but that’s what we want to be and that’s what we strive to be.
Kennedy makes it back to back tries
"Everyone is focusing on the last two weeks and the narrative building about us not being able to beat top-eight teams, but we take confidence from what we've done the whole year.
"There are plenty of teams that have floated into the eight that we have beaten and they float out again so it's not crisis time for us yet, we are still in sixth spot."
Such is the tightness of the competition that a season-defining win over the Panthers could lift the Sharks as high as third, but a loss could see them fall out of the eight for the first time since Round 6.
This article contains content that is only available on NRL.com