Centrals Tigers will take on the Charters Towers Miners in Townsville this Sunday, and the lead up is likely to make it a close contest.
While the Tigers are in third place and Charters Towers are further down in fifth, the visitors are flying high after handling Burdekin 28-14.
The Tigers are coming off a bye, so they'll be fresh, but coach Cameron Miller is confident that the time off hasn't allowed any rust to creep into their game.
"We're not fazed by the two weeks off, I think we've prepared well in that time," Miller said.
The Tigers will need to be fast out of the gates, as they're expecting their opposition's forwards to be physical early in the match to control the momentum early on.
"They're a big, strong physical team, they're going to be tough, they start the game really well," Miller said.
"We're going to have to play very physical and strong through the middle third of the field, we're going to have our work cut out for us, but I'm more than confident we'll back ourselves and our ability."
The sided haven't' played each other this year, but Miners coach Jeffrey Burton is well aware of the Tigers reputation for never letting games run away from them.
"We haven't seen them at all this year, but by all reports they've won a couple and the couple of games they've lost they've been around the money," Burton said.
The coach wants to see his side improve their consistency, with defence and ball control presenting major issues for the Miners in 2018.
"In patches we've defended really well this year, but we've been making a lot of cheap errors with the ball which has put a lot of pressure on us at times.," he said.
