The Panthers may be the walking wounded but they're the overwhelming favourites with Nine's NRL tipsters to take out the premiership on Sunday, with one of the club's favourite sons, Brad Fittler, giving his reasons why.
Speaking on Wide World of Sports' Freddy and The Eighth, Fittler debated with Andrew Johns what impact the Panthers' tough finals campaign would have in the grand final, with Johns arguing it would weaken them and Fittler saying it would give them an edge.
Scroll below for the current leaderboard and grand final tips by Johns, Fittler and all Nine's expert tipsters!
Johns is tipping the Rabbitohs to win the grand final by a narrow margin, with Cameron Murray to be the outstanding player on the field.
The Eighth Immortal is leaning that way mainly due to the number of Panthers players who go into the game less than 100 per cent fit, with Moses Leota, Dylan Edwards andf Brian To'o all struggling with injury and Nathan Cleary's shoulder in need of post-season surgery.
However, Fittler says with just 80 minutes left in the season those concerns won't amount to much.
"Everything Joey said was right but given there's only one game to go, Penrith are conditioned," Fittler said.
"They've had some big games late and it all comes down to 80 minutes. If they had to do it for another four weeks they'd be in real trouble but for one more game, they know now given they played in last year's grand final, a lot of them played in Origin games this year, and also now a couple of games of late have been like Origin games as well, Parramatta was a tough game and then Souths before that and then Melbourne.
"They're just conditioned now to a tough, hard game. Maybe that might be their advantage."
Johns agreed that "Penrith would have learned so much from last year; how to handle the week and how to handle pressure."
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Yet he said some of those lessons would be less beneficial than usual because grand final week has been so different to usual, with both sides effectively in camp.
He said that tipped the ledger back towards the Rabbitohs and their wily coach Wayne Bennett, hence his tip for the winner and the Clive Churchill Medallist.
To see who the other Nine NRL tipsters have picked to win, their predicted margin and their Clive Churchill Medal winner scroll below!
Andrew Johns: Rabbitohs by 4, Cameron Murray to win CCM
Brad Fittler: Panthers
Paul Gallen: Panthers by 4, Isaah Yeo to win CCM
Billy Slater: Panthers by 12, Nathan Cleary to win CCM
Darren Lockyer: Panthers by 7, Nathan Cleary to win CCM
Ruan Sims: Rabbitohs by 4, Cody Walker to win CCM
Wally Lewis: Panthers by 7, Nathan Cleary to win CCM
James Bracey: Panthers by 8, Isaah Yeo to win CCM
Peter Psaltis: Rabbitohs by 1, Cody Walker to win CCM
Mat Thompson: Panthers by 8, Apisai Koroisau to win CCM
The Mole: Panthers by 4, Adam Reynolds to win CCM
Tim Elbra: Panthers by 8, Nathan Cleary to win CCM
Ben Glover: Panthers by 14, Nathan Cleary to win CCM
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