Canberra have fired a shot across the bow of Cronulla's Todd Carney, with back-rowers Josh Papalii and Joel Edwards set to zero in under his ribs to take the sting out of the star playmaker's attack on Sunday.
Raiders prop David Shillington says his side have learnt from their 44-22 NRL defeat to the Sharks in round eight last year when Carney ran amuck.
"We let him drift across field and he just played on his own accord there. Dropping blokes off, spinning the ball out wide and putting in kicks," Shillington said.
"We just hung off him the whole time and gave him too much room."
The Raiders then tailored their defence to cut down Carney's time when they faced the Sharks again in round 20, with a 36-4 scoreline in their favour proving the tactic paid dividends.
"Joel Thompson and Papalii got stuck right into him and hit him under the ribs when he was passing the ball and applied a bit of pressure and it really quietened down his game," Shillington said.
"This week, we'll be looking to have some inside pressure to make him play early, get stuck into him a bit and really take that sting out of his attack."
With Thompson sitting out Sunday's match at Sharks Stadium with a toe injury, Shillington said 24-year-old second-rower Edwards was the man to step up in his place.
"Edwards has shown he loves to put his shoulder in there and get aggressive in his defence, so he'll be a perfect match up there on Toddy," he said.
"I think that will be the key to bringing him down, having that edge defender putting a fair bit of pressure on him."
However, Shillington emphasised that their approach to Carney in defence wouldn't be the area where the game was won or lost, with in-form Sharks forwards Luke Lewis and Andrew Fifita also standing in their way.
"We've got to start with the forward pack," he said.
"It's not just about shutting down Toddy Carney - we take down the forward pack first hopefully."
- AAP
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