Despite making his Origin debut in 2019, Daniel Saifiti admits he was guilty of respecting his frontrow partner David Klemmer too much for his own good last season.
But the towering prop says he is now ready to emerge from out of Klemmer's shadow, even if it means shouldering him out of the road at times to share the workload.
The pair enjoy a great relationship and Saifiti is in awe of his teammate and how much he has already achieved in the game. But he says he let Klemmer's sheer presence on the field affect the way he played in a lot of games last season.
"I was guilty of taking a back seat and letting Klem carry the load too much," Saifiti says.
"I guess I showed him too much respect in that sense, if you know what I mean, because of who he is and what he has achieved.
"In my first three years here, I had to be the dominant frontrower and take a lot of the carries. But with Klem here, I sort of sat back and didn't do enough. I've recognised that now and I'm not going to be guilty of that again."
Saifiti says it's one of the big lessons he learned from a season where he broke into the Origin arena for the first time.
Significantly, his man of the match performance against Parramatta mid-year that clinched his Origin selection came when Klemmer didn't play because of a broken wrist. Ask him how he can take his game to a another level in 2020 and he'll tell you it's all about leadership. And not being afraid to push Klemmer out of the way to take a hit-up if it comes to that.
"I have to take some weight off him and not sit back and let him have to make over 200 metres in a game and me make 90," he said.
"It's something I have to be conscious of on the field. If he is taking two carries each set, I need to be aware of that and take some of his load off.
"It's about me and Klem having that connection on the field and me stepping up and becoming more of a leader and not leaving the bulk of it to him."
So is he prepared to shoulder Klemmer out of the way if it comes to that?
"We've spoken about it and he loves that stuff. He loves when I get angry on the field," Saifiti said. "I just need more consistency. There has been too big of a gap between my best game and my worst."
Saifiti showed in last weekend's trial against the Dragons he has already stepped up to become more than just a follower.
It was he that took two hit-ups in the Knights' first set and he was every bit as dominant as Klemmer during a productive 30 minute stint.
As for playing for the Blues again, he says actions rather than words will ultimately decide whether that happens again this season.
"I'm not thinking about Origin to be honest," he said.
"I want to put my hand up for Newcastle and show what I can do here and I'm a big believer in you pick yourself for rep games with your actions.
"That's not just me. For the whole team, it's going to be about actions this year."
