'Not trying to be Jarome': Panthers young gun relishes 'healthy' battle after earning No.6 jumper

Panthers young gun Jack Cole says he has relished the "healthy competition" with star recruit Blaize Talagi after earning first crack at the No.6 jumper.

Cole will fill the massive shoes left by Jarome Luai in the side's season opener in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon (AEDT), named to partner Nathan Cleary in the halves.

The 21-year-old has already played a handful of first grade games for Penrith, but with Luai departing the club after a successful tenure, Cole now has a chance to become a permanent starter for the reigning premiers.

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Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, the talented five-eighth explained why his latest opportunity is different to his other 10 appearances in the NRL.

"I'm going to try to stay there," Cole said.

"That's the mindset you've gotta have. You can't just be hoping to play one week and then hoping you're playing the next week.

"With the game style we were playing, I was trying to play the role of who I was coming in for. This will help in the sense of me just being able to be my own sort of player.

"I'm not trying to be what Jarome was like. I like watching him and I try to take little bits of his game and put them into mine ... but I know that I'm going back myself."

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Luai and Cleary formed one of the game's elite halves pairing over the past five years, going to five-straight grand finals and winning four of them.

While many believed it would be Talagi - who was a shining light for Parramatta in his rookie season - filling the vacant role, Cole impressed the coaching staff during the pre-season and won the battle for the showdown with premiership hopefuls Cronulla.

Cole believes the internal competition for spots in the halves has served him well.

"It didn't really bother me too much," Cole said of Talagi's signing.

"I feel like when there's competition, I do better. We get along really well, so I think it's been good for the team, it's been good for me and I'm sure it's been good for him.

"No one really knew who was going to be playing that spot until maybe two weeks ago, when I started training there a bit more consistently. At the start of preseason a few of us got sat down and were basically told there's a position there, you just compete for it.

"It's been really good, I've become close with Blaize and we've been training against each other. It's been really awesome and it's all healthy competition too, which is good."