Penrith coach Ivan Cleary is hoping not to become caught up in the emotion of losing more key players as the hours tick down to the NRL grand final against Brisbane.
Sunday's decider at Accor Stadium is the last game local juniors Spencer Leniu and Stephen Crichton will play for the Panthers before respectively joining Sydney Roosters and Canterbury next year.
Between them, they have played 181 games for the Panthers, including the last two premiership victories.
Bench utility Jack Cogger is also leaving to join Newcastle after the grand final, while 2022 premiership winner Jaeman Salmon is bound for the Bulldogs, though misses selection for Sunday.
Amid four years of premiership dominance, the Panthers have become accustomed to losing players each off-season.
Matt Burton, Kurt Capewell, Api Koroisau, Paul Momirovski and Viliame Kikau are among the premiership-winners to have left for more money and/or opportunities elsewhere.
The famously unflappable coach Cleary shared an emotional moment with Koroisau at fulltime in last year's win, hugging the Wests Tigers-bound hooker during the celebrations.
But if Cleary has his way, there won't be any tears shed for the departing players this time around.
"Hopefully not. I don't mean that in a bad way, I'm just trying to stay grounded and worry about this game," Cleary said.
"Everyone knows it's their last game, everyone know it's everyone's last game as this team together.
"But the most important thing is that we get ready and play well. We can worry about the rest afterwards."
The Panthers are only 80 minutes from entering rarefied air as the first team in 40 years to win three consecutive premiership titles.
Cleary can etch his name in the history books alongside Jack Gibson as one of only two men to mastermind three consecutive premierships since the captain-coach era ended in the late 1960s.
The Panthers mentor is giving little thought to his legacy.
"I'm not thinking about it, I'm just trying to stay present, with what my job is over the next 24 hours and what will be, will be," he said.
Cleary will give similar advice to the Panthers as they prepare for a rampant Broncos outfit.
"It's important to focus on the actual game and the process of the game, apart from the aftermath good or bad," he said.
"Those thoughts (about the result) all definitely come in.
"But you've got to try and replace that with what's important, the job each guy's got to do as a team and how we've got to play tomorrow night."
