"If you take the 'UM' off momentum, what have you got?" Hasler asked.

At the other, South Sydney's Michael Maguire brushed off questions about the weight of expectation at a club that hasn't won a premiership since 1971 by saying he wasn't even born then, while Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson was doing his best to avoid  discussions about wrestling.

While all four teams are playing for a place in the grand final, the NRL's coaches' call left little doubt as to which of this weekend's preliminary final matches carries the most pressure for those involved.

After taking the Roosters to grand final success in his first year as an NRL coach, Robinson and his team will never have a better opportunity to achieve the rare feat of back-to-back premierships.

And having steered the Rabbitohs to the same position in each of his previous two years in charge of the game's most successful club, this season may also be Maguire's best chance of delivering the elusive 21st premiership that Souths desperately crave.

The Roosters and the Rabbitohs have star-studded rosters featuring some of the biggest names in the game but Sonny Bill Williams, Sam Burgess, Anthony Minichiello and Ben Te'o are one loss away from having played their last NRL game.

"I've said before that the experience the players have been through those years is definitely part of what makes you," Maguire said. "But what we've done this year, we've got a different team, which I've stated a number of times. We've got a lot of new people.

"The senior boys have definitely grown in the way that they've gone about how we train and how we prepare. And we're just really enjoying doing the things that we've been doing. It's a very tight group at the moment. They love playing footy together and really enjoy doing it and are looking forward to Friday."

Despite only having had to walk across the Allianz Stadium car park, where the Roosters offices are located, to the NRL's League Central headquarters, Robinson looked like the one who wanted to get away from the press conference the fastest and while Hasler and Cleary made jokes, he barely cracked a smile.

Widely considered one of the best thinkers in the game, he did not want to discuss the wrestling scourge which remains in the spotlight after Canterbury forward Josh Jackson was reported for a chicken-wing tackle on Manly's Josh Starling on Saturday night but escaped a charge from the match review committee. "Ithink I've said my bit on it," Robinson said. "I think there's been a huge advancement by the NRL this year and I think there's a bit to go as well."

Asked about the Roosters' 31-30 defeat of North Queensland after leading 30-0 half an hour into the match, Robinson said: "There was really three periods in that game – the first and the last period, we'll certainly try and hold on to. That second period in the game where they scored those 30 points, we need to fix some stuff up otherwise Souths will get the jump on us there. So every week there's some stuff to improve on and there's no difference for us this week, it's not just patching them up and getting them ready for Friday night. There's some improvement needed in us as well."

In contrast, Cleary and Hasler were happy to trade jibes about whose team was the underdog in Saturday night's second preliminary final at ANZ Stadium.

"The last seven games we've played, we've probably been underdogs," said Cleary, who seemed so relaxed he had to be asked to sit forward in his chair for the television cameras.

"And we'll probably be the same thing this week. We understand where we are and who we are, we just try and make it hard for teams to beat us."

After beating the Roosters 19-18 to earn last weekend off, Cleary  said his players looked like they had already won the premiership. "Yeah, it was a fairly big occasion for us," he said. "It's not every day that the Panthers are actually in the finals. And to beat the premiers is a pretty big deal. I guess we've had a bit of time to come back down, which we have. Hopefully we can have a bit more fun this week."

The other teams will all be hoping the same but, undoubtedly, there will be more pressure on whoever Penrith play in the grand final, if they beat the Bulldogs.