James Tamou is ready to bust out of his early-season slumber and reassert his status as one of New South Wales' best front-rowers, according to Penrith teammates.
Tamou responded to his Kangaroos omission during representative round with a mammoth performance in the NSW City-Country game, clocking 203 metres in a 71-minute effort.
The Panthers' marquee buy also offloaded three times and scored the match-sealing try.
It was easily Tamou's best outing since moving to the foot of the mountains, and now his Panthers teammates are expecting him to continue his trajectory at club level.
Front-row partner Reagan Campbell-Gillard conceded the former North Queensland prop has had a subdued start at his new digs but is on the cusp of finding Origin form.
"It's definitely a confidence booster there. He's moved all the way down here from North Queensland and still a bit shy and doesn't feel as comfortable yet," Campbell-Gillard said.
"But I guarantee you he'll that confidence from the Sunday game, build into the Saturday game and I'll feed off that as well.
"Obviously (Origin is) in his books there and you can see in his eyes, he wants to rip in. He should be looking good this week."
Prop Leilani Latu is another who performed strongly for Tonga, scoring the match-winning try against Fiji, and hopes to bring that form back to his club.
"I sat down and I saw some of what the Panther fans were saying about how some of us didn't bring that form to club level. That's understandable - that's justified," he said.
"All we can do now is take what we took out of rep round and bring it back. Hopefully we start getting some wins under us."
Bryce Cartwright (ankle) and Tyrone Peachey (bicep) could be in doubt after failing to finish a field session on Tuesday, while Dean Whare was rested.
But Campbell-Gillard said the club break came at a good time for the under-firing Panthers, who have lost five straight and staring at a tough road back into top-eight contention.
While some coaches opted to limit their representative output, Penrith's Anthony Griffin ticked off on 16 of his top 25 to play in various matches last weekend.
"They'll bring a lot of confidence back and bring an edge to the team," Campbell-Gillard said.
"There's a few boys that were missing at training today, just managing a few niggling injuries. But I guarantee you that the boys who played on the weekend will look really good this week."
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