New Penrith NRL coach Steve Georgallis has less than three months to prove he has what it takes for the permanent role.

And with Panthers' general manager of rugby league Phil Gould giving the former assistant free rein, Georgallis has vowed to go back to basics.

Georgallis was thrust into the top job for the rest of the season after Matt Elliott agreed to step down early on Monday along with assistant coach Wayne Collins.

He has the next 11 weeks to stake his claim for the head coaching gig and he hasn't wasted any time letting his charges know he means business.

"It's an opportunity. It's a chance to show what I can do," Georgallis said on his first day on the job on Tuesday.

"We had a pretty hard session today and they all said to me 'is that what we're doing now Georgie?'."

The former NRL journeyman, whose career ended in 2001 with a stint with the Warrington Wolves in England, feels today's game has become over-complicated and wants to take his team back to simpler times.

"Sometimes you can get pretty carried away with all the science and the technology that we have available," he said.

"But today, we just got back to a little bit of hard work, just players sweating and encouraging each other.

"I'll try to make sure we have a lunch or dinner together the day before a game and make sure we're pretty close before we go into that game. It's something I used to do as a player.

"There's a few things I used to do as a player that I'll bring back."

Georgallis wasn't giving too much away on what reforms he'd be implementing but said the changes could work to his favour.

"The first two weeks will be interesting. The teams that we're playing probably won't know what we're going to be doing because we'll be changing a few things in relation to the way we play," he explained.

"So that's a bonus for us."

Having coached the Panthers under-20s team, Georgallis has worked with many of the team's first grade squad before.

But the rookie coach who admits he'd "be lying if I said I wasn't nervous" is thankful of having the experience of veteran Petero Civoniceva in his team.

And Penrith's skipper is right behind his new boss.

"We've all worked with Steve in the past. We see him as a great mentor there to the boys," Civoniceva said.

"Obviously, we'd love to play our best football and hopefully give him the best opportunity of being appointed for next season."

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