Star South Sydney duo Greg Inglis and Sam Burgess insist the 2014 minor premiership is not on their minds as they head towards a massive showdown with arch-rivals the Sydney Roosters on Thursday night.
Despite the prestigious J.J. Giltinan Shield and an extra $100,000 for their piggy banks on offer if they topple the Roosters, and North Queensland beat the Sea Eagles on Saturday, it hasn't been and won't be spoken about out Redfern way.
"No words have come out of anyone's mouths about [the minor premiership]," Inglis said. "We are just solely focused on what we can control by sticking to our processes and that starts at training.
"Our focus is to put forward a good performance as a team. It isn't ours to win really," Burgess added.
"We just have to focus on our job and if we get the result then you never know but it won't be something we speak about this week, it is our performance we will be focusing on."
With the Roosters shooting for six straight heading into finals footy, Burgess especially realised the momentous task ahead for a team that will welcome back captain John Sutton in place of suspended halfback Adam Reynolds.
South Sydney's struggles against the Bulldogs last round, where they failed to hit the lead until the final seven minutes, are something the Bunnies will be looking to avoid this week with a home semi-final on the line.
"We weren't at our best. We can't take that away from the Bulldogs though, they did a good job controlling us, but we made a few silly errors – me included – and we weren't as clinical as we wanted to be at times but we just have to keep building on our rhythm," Burgess said.
"Madge would have been a bit pissed off... obviously a bit frustrated that we could do better.
"When we were in good areas we just turned it over. We just want to get back on track and control the game a bit better."
For Inglis, who struggled throughout the Bulldogs game with a "jammed hip" after doing the splits on his knees, it is business as usual despite giving up the captaincy due to Sutton's return.
"I have definitely enjoyed it but I have always said from the start that John is our captain and I'm just the stand-in," Inglis said.
"Just because I had the 'c' next to my name didn't mean I approached the games any differently. More than anything it just meant I had to do more media stuff, that's the only thing that's changed with it.
"I'll just go about my business because I'm really enjoying what I'm doing right now."
