They were instilled as premiership favourites at the start of the year, but Penrith have embraced being underdogs heading into the final month of the NRL season.
The Panthers have moved back into the reckoning for the title after stealing eighth spot from St George Illawarra with a win over the Wests Tigers on Sunday.
But with history proving that premiers are born out of the top four, Panthers prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard believes the team is free of the weight of being favourites.
"I don't mind dark horse. I think we're just flying under the radar still," Campbell-Gillard said.
"We're not playing our best football but I believe in the next few weeks we'll start firing. We're not looking forward to the grand final and take each week as it comes."
Panthers teammate Isaah Yeo admitted the team may have bought into the hype in the pre-season, which resulted in a near season-ending 2-7 opening to their campaign.
But he is adamant they have turned the corner and have room to improve.
"We didn't start how we wanted to. We might've been reading into the hype a little bit too much but apart from that I thought we haven't been too bad," Yeo said.
"We weren't toughing it out as much as we needed to at the start of the year.
"We had that bad performance against Souths (in round 17) but I thought we've really bounced back from that over the last four-five weeks."
Penrith are set to be bolstered by the return of skipper Matt Moylan for Saturday's clash with North Queensland, while star Trent Merrin could be back the following week.
"It's nice when you've got two Australia and NSW representatives to come in. I think 'Mez' is a couple of weeks away and Moyza's this weekend," Yeo said.
"I think we're scratching the surface. At the moment we're finding a way to win and not playing our best football. We've got a lot of improvement left - that's the pleasing thing."
Share
