Melbourne half-back Cooper Cronk says he's not afraid to get his hands dirty in defence during Saturday night's preliminary final against Brisbane, even if that means getting in the way of man mountain Dave Taylor.
Taylor, who will play his final game for the Queensland club either this weekend or in the following Sunday's grand final before he links up with South Sydney, has been one of the major reasons for the Broncos' huge turnaround in the past seven weeks.
Seemingly headed for its first September devoid of finals football in 18 years following the 0-56 loss to Canberra in Round 20 Brisbane has hit back hard with seven wins on end since, the latest of them last weekend as it put minor premier St George Illawarra to the sword.
And while the hulking Taylor - who stands 185cm and tips the scales at 115kg - has been an imposing figure during that stretch with not only his ball running but now also some sublime passing, Cronk is prepared to do whatever it takes to help his team book a fourth-straight grand final appearance.
"Everyone's got their confrontations on the field and their part to play," Cronk said after training on Wednesday.
"If that comes across (that Taylor runs at him) you've got to get out there and do your job, perform your role for the better part of the team."
"If I can do that it will obviously help someone else (and) hopefully things work out for us."
Ordinarily when the Storm and Broncos are set to go head-to-head Cronk would be preparing to face Peter Wallace but with the New South Wales Origin half-back ruled out by a broken ankle he isn't too concerned about the uncertainty surrounding what Brisbane will do in the halves.
"Obviously it was an unfortunate injury for (Wallace) but Darren Lockyer plays a pivotal role in the way they attack, Karmichael Hunt's playing some outstanding footy and they've got some running back-rowers that are ball-playing and providing a lot of attack for them," Cronk added.
"It's not ideal for them but I think they can cover it and they'll be definitely coming down here throwing the football around."
"You can get caught up in worrying about what other teams are going to do at finals football but you've got to go out and execute what you've been doing out on the training paddock for the best part of 80 minutes and do it to the best of your ability - whichever team does that will end up on top."
While some subscribe to the theory that having a week's rest during a finals campaign can be a bad thing for the likes of the Storm and Bulldogs this week because it robs a team of its momentum, Cronk doesn't.
"You try to address things as best you possibly can but you train for everything, you go out and perform the best you possibly can and whoever does it best on the day will come out on top, whether you've played the week before or had the week off," he said.