Damien Cook has already displaced Robbie Farah from the South Sydney No.9 jersey and is now turning his attention to doing the same for NSWl.
Over the past two NRL seasons, Cook has proved the catalyst behind the Rabbitohs finding their best form and coach Michael Maguire is hoping that is a trend that won't stop anytime soon.
Maguire a fortnight ago made the difficult decision to drop incumbent Blues hooker Farah, who is on a reported $950,000 a year, for the late-blooming 25-year-old Cook.
It was only in the last month of last season when Cook usurped Cameron McInnes for the starting hooking role that the side started to fire, winning their last four straight to end an otherwise forgettable year.
And after making the hard decision to start Cook, the Rabbitohs once against bounced back to their best form of the year so far in last week's defeat of Penrith.
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Asked if he knew Cook was going to be so effective, Maguire said: "Yeah, I saw it at the back end of last season and that's why I fought so hard to keep him.
"He probably came on a little bit later and is learning a lot from Robbie about the game."
Cook is likely to make his representative debut for NSW Country next month.
And with Farah's position in the Blues side looking shaky, he has been mentioned as a possible Origin contender along with McInnes, Nathan Peats and Peter Wallace.
Ahead of his showdown with his old club, Canterbury coach Des Hasler professed his deep admiration for the explosive No.9.
Cook made a name for himself in the back end of 2015 when he came in for the injured Michael Lichaa, failing to miss a beat when thrown into the deep end just three weeks before the finals.
"He's made every post a winner," Hasler said.
"He provides great impact for the Souths side. He's going really well.
"We tried to keep him but there's a thing called the cap."
The Bulldogs pack faces a test without injured big man David Klemmer.
However winger Kerrod Holland's return will give them a recognised kicker after Hasler last week admitted his side's wastefulness when going for two was becoming a headache.
STATS THAT MATTER
* The Bulldogs have will be looking to win three-straight matches for the first time since round 17, 2016 when they won four straight.
* Canterbury has scored the least points per game (14.3), make the equal second least line breaks (3.7) and score the equal second least tries (2.8).
*Adam Reynolds requires just eight points to reach the 900 milestone. He will become just the third player in South Sydney's history to reach 900 points behind Eric Simms (1841) and Bernie Percell (1126).
