Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has implored his side to take a better hold of their emotions during a visit to North Queensland that’s crucial for the NRL club’s top-eight hopes.

The Panthers are ninth on percentage after a 24-12 loss to Brisbane last weekend that Cleary said lacked composure, not effort.

Emotions will be running high on Friday night after the mid-week revelation that Cowboys great Matt Scott was recovering in hospital after suffering a mild stroke.

Cleary hopes his men can handle those external forces, having labelled the side’s first-half effort against the Broncos “immature”.

“We’ve had a lot of important games recently … but this game is definitely that,” he said.

“Last week we had a lot of emotion, lot of energy, but it was misplaced.

“We lost our way, I think the emotions took over … we learnt some lessons out of that and have to make sure we get that right.”

The Cowboys have lost eight of their last nine games while Penrith have lost three of their last four to be in danger of missing the finals for the first time since 2015.

Penrith will plan on wrecking ball Jason Taumalolo (foot) returning from injury and the Townsville faithful to will on their 15th-placed team in what’s been an emotional week.

“Matt’s a much-loved figure up here, well respected guy and I’m sure they’ll be looking to put in a good performance for him and the club and fans,” Cleary said.

“To hear that news was quite shocking really; I just hope everything is going okay for him.”