Penrith recovered from a horror 2-7 start to the season to make the NRL finals, so coach Anthony Griffin can't see any reason why a round 26 loss to Manly should halt their run.
The Sea Eagles and Panthers will become just the fifth teams to face each other in back-to-back weeks in the NRL era at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
So far, results are mixed.
On three occasions, the same team has won both games. Twice - Parramatta against St George Illawarra in 2009 and the Dragons against Canterbury in 2001 - the result has been overturned.
But Griffin said his team had already displayed a tonne of character to bounce back from their woeful start to the season, which showed him that a 28-12 defeat to Manly last week wouldn't have them psychologically beaten before Saturday's elimination final.
"From our end it's learning from last week, but we've got a lot of confidence from our resilience and the form we've shown in the back end of this year," Griffin said.
"Otherwise we wouldn't be standing here talking about this game."
There have been suggestions during the week that Penrith will have an advantage from having seen Manly's playbook firsthand while they were at their best in last week's defeat.
But Griffin is more interested in what the young Panthers can learn about themselves, as a number of players enter only their first or second finals series.
"Obviously we've got to be a lot better physically," Griffin said.
"We got a real lesson in intensity and physicality from Manly last week.
"Last week was finals intensity and they weren't ready for it. So if anything they will get a lesson out of last week and what finals intensity is all about."
Meanwhile Manly coach Trent Barrett said Penrith wouldn't be the only team ready to take an advantage out out of having a close look at their eventual finals opponents.
"They've obviously got the best preview you can get I suppose, but so did we," he said.
"They'll think that they can identify a few things in our game, as will we."
PREVIOUS NRL REPEAT MATCHES
2009 - Rd 26: Dragons 37 bt Eels 0, FW1: Eels 25 bt Dragons 12
2007 - Rd 25: Cowboys 38 bt Bulldogs 32, FW1: Cowboys 20 bt Bulldogs 18
2002 - Rd 26: Roosters 30 bt Sharks 18, FW1: Roosters 32 bt Sharks 20
2002 - Rd 26 - Dragons 40 bt Knights 22, FW1: Dragons b Knights 26-22
2001 - Rd26 - Bulldogs 24 bt Dragons 22, FW1: Dragons 23 bt Bulldogs 22
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