After a blistering start to the season in the back row, South Sydney forward Paul Carter says he is comfortable with an early-season shift into the club's utility role.
The 22-year-old racked up huge numbers over the first three rounds – headlined by 61 tackles and 100 metres against the Dragons in Round 3 – but has started the last two games off the bench.
With regular No.14 Damien Cook left out of the side for the clash in Townsville, Carter was used as a makeshift dummy-half; a role he is no stranger to after filling in there for a number of games while at the Titans.
Carter says the move back to hooker was smoother than he had expected, and is prepared to play a similar role in the coming weeks if that's what South Sydney coach Michael Maguire wants from him.
"It was the first game I've played there for a while, but I felt fine slipping back in. The combinations felt good, especially a few sets there where we were rolling on the front foot," Carter said.
"'Madge' likes to keep that utility role open for me and I'll slip in wherever the team needs me to play. We'll wait and see what happens this week and we'll go from there."
Last week's 44-18 loss was South Sydney's fourth defeat in their past five matches, and Carter says the onus is on the players to fix their discipline.
The Rabbitohs completed just 69 per cent of their sets and missed 25 tackles to concede their highest score of the season.
"I think we've got to take a lot of out that loss on the weekend. Through our errors we just gave them way too much ball and obviously we can't do that in footy - especially first grade," Carter told NRL.com.
"I think we've got to work a bit harder for each other in defence and that's something we'll address. It's just an attitude thing and we're going to work on that."
It doesn't get any easier for the Rabbitohs this week who are set to take on the team North Queensland beat in last year's grand final.
The Broncos have been the form side in 2016 and sit alone atop the competition ladder with six wins from the first seven rounds.
With players like Anthony Milford to contend with, Carter is wary of a Brisbane side that flexed its attacking muscles with a 53-0 win over the Knights last Saturday night.
"Milford is a bit of a freak so we'll just need to stick to our game plan and stick to our guns and we’ll be right," the 22-year-old said.
"They're a good all-round football team and they've got strike power all over the field and they play for the full 80 minutes. It's going to be a great test trying to stop them but we're all looking forward to the challenge.
"They're the favourites to win the comp and they've set the benchmark over the first seven weeks for the rest of the competition. It's going to be a great task for us going up there and take them on at home and I'm really looking forward to it."
