Ahead of meeting England and their highly-regarded forward pack this weekend, the Kangaroos believe they have found a point of difference in the form of bench big man David Klemmer.
The Bulldogs enforcer was one of Australia's best in last week's 14-8 victory over the Kiwis, averaging 15.9 metres on each of his 10 carries.
But statistics can't measure it all, and Klemmer's energy and enthusiasm helped the Kangaroos to maintain momentum in vital stages either side of half-time.
The performance drew praise from captain Cameron Smith, who believed it had probably assured Klemmer of a spot in the 17 for the remainder of the Four Nations tournament.
"He was very good, very good… he has been great the last two matches, he thrives on the big games and enjoys playing against other quality forward packs," Smith said.
"I thought the two big boys off the bench (Klemmer and Shannon Boyd) were outstanding… they brought a lot of energy to our side, which is what we ask our 'benchies' to do.
"He (Klemmer) has put his name right in the frame for obviously next week and then hopefully we can get through to the final and he can be there again."
Fellow prop Aaron Woods added that Klemmer's runs had served as motivation for the rest of the pack at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
"He was outstanding off the bench, I thought he just went to another level," Woods said.
"He was running that hard, running from the back fence, in the second half from the first kick-off of the game he almost sliced through."
While England have struggled in other areas so far in the Four Nations, they had no issues going forward against the Kiwis in week one (a 17-16 loss) and Scotland last week (a 38-12 victory), averaging 1667.5 run metres as a team across both games.
Captain Sam Burgess has been at the forefront, running for 206 metres against the Kiwis and backing it up with 161 against the Bravehearts in Coventry, while off the bench little brother Thomas has surpassed the 100 mark in both contests as well.
Woods said he was excited by the opportunity to confront the England pack head-on at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London on Monday morning (AEDT).
"We are really looking forward to it now… obviously they have got the Burgess boys, James Graham said he might be back, and even blokes like Liam Farrell," Woods said.
"It's always good to play against them guys, you don't get to play against them often, so I am just looking forward to playing them."
