Cody Walker has warned rivals he is starting to feel like his old self again after shaking off his slow start to the season in South Sydney's halves.
Walker will play game number 150 on Friday night against Manly, deservedly proud of his journey from a 26-year-old debutant to one of the NRL's stars.
He enters it with the Rabbitohs desperately needing to get their handling sorted, making the most errors in the NRL while winning just three of their opening seven games.
But after struggling to reach his previous highs in his first month without Adam Reynolds, Walker himself is feeling as if he is starting to be back to his best.
The 32-year-old has set up a try in each of the Rabbitohs past two games, after going five straight without putting a teammate over for the first time since 2018.
He also scored once last weekend against Wests Tigers, as the usually dominant left edge showed the first real signs of firing before the Rabbitohs' handling again let them down in the end.
"There were a couple of opportunities where I am back to the old Cody," Walker said.
"But if we keep making 16 errors it's going to be hard for anyone to attack the way we did last year.
"This year alone we have only hit the 80 per cent completion mark once, and that was probably our best game."
Walker admitted part of his issue had not so much been the loss of Reynolds, but being able to counteract teams piling more defenders on him to limit space and time.
The five-eighth's touches are up around 15 per cent on last year, but he is running the ball less with extra attention from rivals.
"I think it (is about dealing with more defensive pressure), but also being busy," he said.
"If they do shift another number on me, it's getting over the other side of the field and being involved.
"I probably didn't do that at the start of the year and (if I want to be) getting back to the old me, that's what I have to do."
South Sydney expect Manly's beleaguered right edge to take a similar approach to Walker on Friday, after being embarrassed by Siosifa Talakai last week.
Manly have dropped centre Morgan Harper, but Talakai's destruction would no doubt ring alarm bells ahead of facing one of the competition's most potent edges on Friday.
"I definitely think they will be all over that and fixing it this week, especially with that being Cody's side as well," hooker Damien Cook said.
"If guys are going to stack up on Cody then we have to go somewhere else ... We can't put all the pressure on Cody to put the points on."
