South Sydney hooker Damien Cook is refusing to let his duel with Penrith’s Api Koroisau for a World Cup berth distract him from the task of helping the Rabbitohs to avenge last year's grand final loss
Cook and Koroisau will go head-to-head in next Saturday night’s preliminary final at Accor Stadium in what is effectively a selection trial between the NSW team-mates for one of two specialist hooking spots in Mal Meninga’s 24-man Australian squad.
With the Kangaroos squad to be named after the grand final, whichever No.9 plays in the winning team next weekend will have the last chance to impress and Cook is desperate for the Rabbitohs to avenge last year’s 14-12 loss to Penrith in the premiership decider.
Match Highlights: Panthers v Rabbitohs
“It is an opportunity that we missed to win a grand final and that is why you play this great game,” Cook said after Saturday night’s 38-12 semi-final defeat of Cronulla at Allianz Stadium. “We have got to use that experience in the past to motivate us moving forward.
“After the game, we weren’t jumping around and carrying on about how excited we are because the job isn’t done.
"I think we understand what it takes to win a grand final now, as well as understanding what it feels like to win and lose a preliminary final.”
The Rabbitohs have now been involved in the penultimate match of the season for each of the past five years, but only managed to advance to the grand final in 2021.
The Panthers not only beat them in last year’s premiership decider but also eliminated Souths in the 2020 preliminary final before losing the grand final to Melbourne.
However, the Rabbitohs take confidence from their 16-10 defeat of Penrith in last year’s qualifying final and believe they have the attacking style to trouble the Panthers if they can remain discipline and maintain the defence that has leaked just 26 points in the opening two weeks of the play-offs.
“Everyone is beatable but with a side like Penrith, or the Storm in the past, you have got to play your best footy to beat them,” Cook said.
“That is what we did in round one of the semis last year. We were very good coming out of yardage and very disciplined to not give them easy opportunities to get out of our end.
“Penrith are a quality side, they are obviously the best side of the last few years and to beat them we have got to be better than we were against the Sharks.
“We can’t be giving up easy errors and field position because Nathan [Cleary] and Jarome [Luai] will keep us locked down our end and do what they did to us in the grand final.”
With Cleary and Luai among seven members of the Panthers squad in the NSW team for this year’s Origin series, Cook has an insight into how they play.
Koroisau was also in the Blues squad and he won the starting spot in Origin II and III, with Cook coming off the bench.
Despite being the incumbent Kangaroos hooker, Cook now faces a battle to retain his jersey as Ben Hunt and Harry Grant were effective playing in tandem for Queensland in Origin and Meninga is expected to take only one other hooker in his squad for the World Cup.
“Everyone wants to play in the World Cup, everyone wants to play representative footy, it is the greatest honour in our game to wear that green and gold jersey, but that is for after the season is done,” Cook said.
“There is a big game in front of us and winning a grand final is something we want to do here so I just want to make sure we get the job done, have a great week at training, win this prelim, get into the grand final and give it our best crack.”