Penrith coach Anthony Griffin has urged his players to heed the lessons of last year's NRL finals exit and get stuck into Brisbane early.
Almost one year to the day since they were knocked out by Canberra in a semi-final, the Panthers arrive at the same stage against the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium on Friday.
Griffin has reminded his troops about the dangers of waiting for the match to come to them instead of dictating the contest.
The Raiders were leading 18-0 last year before the Panthers pressed late in the match, only to go down by ten points.
"We got some lessons to learn out of that Canberra game," Griffin said.
"We went down there and didn't get into the game until the 65th minute and you just can't do that in play-off games and that's the biggest lesson.
"Obviously the start of the game's really important, the simple things about possession and field position. We didn't get that right against Canberra last year
"So it'll be important for us (Friday) night."
Griffin said his team were also made to pay for a slow start in their most recent clash against the Broncos in round nine in Brisbane.
Penrith were barely in the fight at 22-0 inside the opening hour before finally waking up with three consecutive tries to save face.
"They were far too good for us that night. They blew us off the park in the first 50 minutes," Griffin said.
"If that part of the game for us doesn't happen the way we want it to at the start, we're going to put ourselves behind the eight ball.
"Obviously we've got to play well early."
