“There are a lot of massive Panthers fans out there. Whenever I see them,it just puts a massive smile on my face that they recognise me.

“They still come up and ask me about it and tell me it was a nice try,things like that. It’s always the same answer.”

Crichton and his teammates know all too well about the motivation Souths will take into Friday’s match,having lost the final game of the season to Melbourne two years ago.

“It’s a massive game to step up to,” he said. “They’ll come out firing,because of that last game,the grand final loss.

“I think we’ll be ready,and we’ve prepared well enough to resist them coming through.

“They missed a few opportunities,and they’ll be working on those. We’ll be preparing to make sure we don’t make any mistakes.”

But he also warned the Rabbitohs against sending too much traffic Nathan Cleary’s way in his first match since last year’s decider.

“He says he’s all right,he says he should be ready,” Crichton said. “He’s been doing a lot of tackling with Fish[James Fisher-Harris],one of our biggest forwards there. If he can take down Fish,his shoulder should be close to 100 per cent.

“[Winning without Cleary has been] a massive step forward for the other boys. Special mention to Isaah Yeo,Api[Koroisau] and Romey[Jarome Luai],taking charge of the team,while Clez hasn’t been here and navigating us around the park,getting us to the right spots where we can use our strengths.

“Special mention to those boys.

“It’s been a massive confidence boost having Clez out there,with the brains that he has and the kicking game that he has. It’ll be exciting to have him back.”

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