Rabbitohs assistant Jason Demetriou hopes to present Wayne Bennett with two wins and a team that has found its killer instinct when he returns following his 14-day quarantine.
The Bunnies travel to Townsville on Saturday to face the Cowboys after cruising past the Broncos in comfortable fashion in their first start without Bennett.
After finishing in 2019's top-four, the Rabbitohs have had their challenges this season but Demetriou said they'll need to hit their straps in the coming weeks if they want to be title contenders.
"We'll know over the next few weeks … we're starting to get in the money-ball end of the season," Demetriou said on Friday.
"It's about standards lifting for all teams. I thought for 60 minutes against the Dragons we played some good footy and were professional and controlled last week.
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"We're looking to be that again this week but probably upping the intensity a little bit and having a killer instinct about how we play.
"We're still 6-7 weeks from the finals which is still a long time in this type of season. Keeping the same team on the field is going to be vital and we've seen that across the game."
Conceding he's felt more like a "relief teacher" in Bennett's absence this week, Demetriou mixed things up in his first full training schedule in charge by putting on a games-style session on Monday.
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With injuries across the competition raising concerns among rival coaches Trent Robinson and Craig Bellamy on Thursday night, Demetriou said the Rabbitohs were already in the process of managing players' workloads.
"The Cowboys played on Sunday so it allowed us to get the boys in and take the mind off footy with a bit of fun," he said.
"There are ways around [managing fatigue] and individually we can rest players during the week.
"The most important thing for us is getting our best team on the field. We really ramped it up on Wednesday and again today."
Demetriou will start representative forward Cameron Murray in the second row for Saturday's clash as part of a rotating system to help ease the workload for some of the club's younger talent.
Murray's move will see Bayley Sironen shift to the bench and Liam Knight start at lock.
"Cam did a job for us and Siro has been up for a few weeks now so it's just about rotating the forwards to freshen them up," he said.
"It's a big battle over the next couple of months to keep people fresh and up for the game next week."