James Segeyaro says Penrith are out for revenge against Canterbury this weekend after the Bulldogs deprived them of a NRL grand final appearance last year.
Penrith’s fairytale 2014 run came to an end when they were bundled out by the Bulldogs in the preliminary final.
While the competition start afresh this weekend, the Penrith hooker said on Tuesday that loss to Canterbury was still a sore point and gave the Panthers added motivation for their round one clash at Pepper Stadium on Sunday.
“There’s still a fire burning inside of me after how we ended up losing last year in the prelims,” Segeyaro said.
“Obviously they were the better team in the end.
“We can go out there and prove a point to ourselves and give the fans something to cheer about.”
Penrith’s preparation has been less than ideal with Segeyaro (ankle), Jamie Soward (ankle) and Peter Wallace (knee) all spending time on the sidelines during the pre-season after undergoing surgery.
They lost both of their trial matches and are putting an emphasis on a fast start to the season proper after limping out of the blocks last year.
The arrival of grand final-winning hooker Apisai Koroisau has placed pressure on Segeyaro to maintain his spot as an 80-minute hooker.
Segeyaro was full of praise for the former South Sydney rake and said he had even learnt some things from Koroisau during the pre-season.
“Everyone needs that competition otherwise you start getting a bit complacent,” he said.
“This year I started a little bit slow because I had surgery, I wasn’t out on the field to get the kilometres in my legs, things I needed to work towards.”