For the first time in five years Penrith is about to enter an NRL season as the hunters, not the hunted.

While star Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards is excited about having first crack at the team that took their NRL title—and knocked them out of the 2025 premiership race—he says the squad is far more concerned with getting their 2026 campaign off to a strong start than exacting revenge on the Broncos. 

“We didn’t finish (2025) the way we wanted, so that obviously creates hunger, but it’s a new campaign and we’re going up there to put our game on—we’ll be worrying more about us than worrying about the Broncos,” he told the media before Penrith flew to Brisbane ahead of Friday night’s clash.

“It’s a good challenge any time you go up to Suncorp and face the Broncos, no matter where they finish, but they’re the reigning premiers so what better time to test yourself than Round 1?”

MORE: NRL team lists 2026 – Confirmed teams for Round 1

‘We let things slip a bit’

Asked if coach Ivan Cleary had used last year’s NRL preliminary final loss to Brisbane as motivation for the Round 1 clash, Edwards admitted the match had been mentioned at times during the summer.

“We’ve taken snippets of that prelim throughout our pre-season… but no specific thoughts of revenge, it’s all about us, Round 1, we’re just trying to get our season off to a good start,” he reiterated, stressing the team was very conscious of avoiding the same poor opening that saw the Panthers sitting in last place after 12 rounds in 2025.

“Without knowing, we let things slip a bit (at the start of the 2025 season),” Edwards said.

“It’s been pretty well documented that we missed the mark and we don’t want that to happen again, so everyone has really ripped in, had a great pre-season and worked really hard. Hopefully that puts us in good stead to start the season better than we did last year.”

The incumbent NSW fullback and Kangaroo Tour squad member, Edwards will also be looking to improve his own performances for the Panthers in 2026, describing his 2025 NRL season as ‘sub par’.

“You want to be hitting your straps towards the back end of the year and I wasn’t doing that,” he said.

“That was unfortunate and something I had to look at to try and fix up.”