Canterbury centre Will Hopoate hopes his side can benefit from getting a look at how the new rule changes work by the time their Sunday night game against Manly kicks off.
With a reduction to one on-field referee and a six-again ruling to replace penalties for in-play ruck infringements at the discretion of that referee, there is a feeling dominant forwards and fast dummy-half runners will be best-placed to capitalise.
"That's a bonus for us playing on Sunday, we get to watch the games before us and have a look at what it's like," Hopoate said.
"I suppose time will tell how it works, there's always pros and cons with rule changes, teams try and do their best to get around it and deal with it so it will be exciting to see on Thursday night [when the Broncos host the Eels] how it goes.
"If you get [a six-again call] later in the tackle count that will be a lift for the team.
"Defensively when you're tackling and give away the penalty on tackle four or five that really hurts to D it up again, especially for the boys in the middle.
"For the quicker blokes we have to get into dummy half and make the big boys work."
Playing to an empty Central Coast Stadium will be "a bit different" but the experience from round two against the Cowboys suggests the players will adapt well, Hopoate added.
"We had the one game with no crowd but going off that, when you're in the game you don't really notice there's no crowd there," he said.
"You only notice when there's a try scored or a big hit there's no big roar then it hits it's a bit different with no crowd there, but when you're in the moment you just focus on the play at hand."
Hopoate: Boys ready to rip in for Pay
