Michael Maguire has told Wests Tigers players to embrace the Tommy Raudonikis spirit as the club prepares to honour the Magpies' great.
Leichhardt Oval is already sold out for Sunday's clash with North Queensland, with about 10,000 fans to attend with the famous hill still subject to COVID-19 restrictions.
The Tigers will wear Raudonikis' name and Western Suburbs' playing number across the chest of their predominantly black-and-white home jersey.
Luke Brooks will don the No.22 jersey with the No.7 strip to sit on the first chair of the club's bench, after the 70-year-old Raudonikis lost his battle with cancer on Wednesday.
"What we're confident we'll do is use what's in the air and around on the day to put our a great performance on the park," Maguire said.
"It'll be a great day for rugby league. It's really important that we take the time to celebrate Tommy.
"He's a great man and I've been fortunate to spend some time with him over the years.
"He was a great character and he was a player that everyone not only wanted to play with but also be around.
"That's what made him so special."
On the field, the next two months are crucial for the Tigers.
They are 1-3 after a tough start to the season against four sides who all played in last year's finals, including top-four teams the Sydney Roosters, Canberra and Parramatta.
Over the next eight weeks they only face two of the 2020 top-eight sides - South Sydney in round six and Newcastle in round 10.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, are struggling, with players having labelled their defence as "soft" for the past two weeks after crashing to a 0-4 start.
After Michael Morgan was forced to finish his career on Friday, they suffered two further blows on Saturday with Jason Taumalolo's return pushed back by a week and Josh McGuire ruled out with an illness.
But still, the Tigers know they must be better.
"We're not getting the results and everyone sees the result as the outcome," Maguire said of the Tigers' start.
"But what we're doing and what we're building as a group, there's a lot of good signs -- we just need to keep doing that over the 80 minutes.
"We need to build more pressure in attack to put teams under the pump, but when the game turns and the momentum swings we need to handle that better.
"No matter what's in front of you in a game you've got to be able to handle those situations and that's where we're at as a team."
Australian Associated Press
