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Penrith skipper Petero Civoniceva says the NRL minor premiership is not on the club’s radar despite the Panthers facing the friendliest run home of any finals contenders.
Currently two points behind ladder leaders St George Illawarra, the Panthers will only play two sides currently in the top eight over the closing eight rounds.
But Civoniceva warned that there was no such thing as an easy run home home, with making a charge at top spot not on the agenda.
“We don’t want to be losing focus of what we need to do,” said Civoniceva, who admitted the side needed to learn from its mistakes in Sunday’s thrilling 12-6 loss to the Warriors.
“The most important thing for us is to keep building as a team and those rewards will come if we’re focussed on improving and playing consistent football.
“That (the minor premiership) is definitely not a focus of the group and I’d be pretty disappointed if that was the attitude we were taking towards the back end of the year.
“If we focus on that wholly and solely then we’ll come up short.”
While the Panthers’ road home may not be littered with speed humps, the same could not be said of the Dragons.
As well as trying to acclimatise prodigal son Mark Gasnier into the team structure, the Dragons have five games against sides in the top half of the ladder, including two matches against South Sydney and a trip to Brisbane.
Should the top two suffer late-season falls, the third-placed Wests Tigers would be in with an outside chance of claiming a guaranteed second bite of the cherry in the finals courtesy of a top two finish.
The Tigers have only three games against top eight sides remaining, including a home game against the Panthers in round 23.
But such is the congestion in the middle of the ladder – with just one win separating the fourth-placed Sydney Roosters from ninth-placed Manly – that the Tigers could drop out of the eight with back-to-back defeats.
Of the sides in the bottom half of the eight, South Sydney and Gold Coast each have five games remaining against top eight sides.
“We haven’t got any of the sides at the bottom, but you’ve got to play who you’ve got to play,” Souths coach John Lang said.
But as tough as the Rabbitohs’ schedule is, it has nothing on that of Parramatta.
The Eels face a tough ask replicating last year’s dramatic charge to the finals with seven of their last eight games against sides in the top eight.
Their only other match is against another finals hopeful in Canterbury, the team they beat in last year’s preliminary final.
Newcastle, currently two points out of the eight, have a great opportunity over the next four weeks to make a move with no games against top half sides.
If they can build on their three match winning streak their real test will come over the closing four rounds with matches against the Warriors, Broncos, Dragons and Melbourne to close out the season.
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA (1st, 28 points) – RABBITOHS (a), TITANS (h), BRONCOS (a), ROOSTERS (a), Sea Eagles (h), Raiders (a), Knights (a), RABBITOHS (h)
PENRITH (2nd, 26 points) – Eels (h), Storm (a), Cowboys (h), Raiders (a), TIGERS (a), RABBITOHS (h), Bulldogs (a), Sharks (h)
WESTS TIGERS (3rd, 24 points) – Cowboys (h), Sea Eagles (a), Sharks (h), RABBITOHS (a), PANTHERS (h), Eels (a), Storm (h), TITANS (a)
SYDNEY ROOSTERS (4th, 22 points) – Bulldogs (h), BRONCOS (a), Eels (a), DRAGONS (a), Sharks (a), TITANS (h), Sea Eagles (h), Cowboys (a)
GOLD COAST (5th, 22 points) – BRONCOS (h), DRAGONS (a), WARRIORS (a), Eels (h), Cowboys (h), ROOSTERS (a), Sharks (a), TIGERS (h)
WARRIORS (6th, 22 points) – Storm (h), RABBITOHS (a), TITANS (h), Sharks (a), Knights (h), Sea Eagles (a), BRONCOS (h), Eels (a)
SOUTH SYDNEY (7th, 20 points) – DRAGONS (h), WARRIORS (h), Bulldogs (a), TIGERS (h), Storm (a), PANTHERS (a), Eels (h), DRAGONS (a)
BRISBANE (8th, 20 points) – TITANS (a), ROOSTERS (h), DRAGONS (h), Cowboys (a), Eels (h), Knights (a), WARRIORS (a), Raiders (h)
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MANLY (9th, 20 points) – Sharks (a), TIGERS (a), Knights (a), Storm (h), DRAGONS (a), WARRIORS (h), ROOSTERS (a), Bulldogs (h)
NEWCASTLE (10th, 18 points) – Raiders (a), Cowboys (a), Sea Eagles (h), Bulldogs (h), WARRIORS (a), BRONCOS (h), DRAGONS (h), Storm (a)
CANTERBURY (11th, 16 points) – ROOSTERS (a), Eels (h), RABBITOHS (h), Knights (a), Raiders (h), Cowboys (a), PANTHERS (h), Sea Eagles (a)
PARRAMATTA* (12th, 16 points) – PANTHERS (a), Bulldogs (a), ROOSTERS (h), TITANS (a), BRONCOS (a), TIGERS (h), RABBITOHS (a), WARRIORS (h)
CANBERRA (13th, 16 points) – Knights (h), Sharks (h), Storm (a), PANTHERS (h), Bulldogs (a), DRAGONS (h), Cowboys (h), BRONCOS (a)
* – Parramatta’s total before Monday night’s round 18 match against North Queensland.
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