Penrith hooker Kevin Kingston believes the NRL club's newfound optimism under interim coach Steve Georgallis could propel the Panthers to even greater heights than they achieved last season.

Under recently dumped coach Matt Elliott the Panthers pushed their way to second on the ladder at the end of the regular season in 2010, before being bundled out of the finals with consecutive losses.

And after a slow start to this season, the Panthers seem to have found their groove under Georgallis - who now boasts a perfect record with two wins and no losses despite being overlooked for the Panthers head coaching role in 2012, with Warriors mentor Ivan Cleary preferred.

As a result the former Cronulla and Parramatta playmaker believes Penrith have the ability to make a bigger dent on the finals than they did with their meek exit in 2010.

"Hopefully we can become a better team than we were last year," Kingston told AAP.

"We learned a lot of lessons last year, especially in the finals.

"The first step we have is to get to the finals, but I'm sure we can shake up a few teams on the way."

Kingston, who dictates much of Penrith's style of play due to his influence over the ruck, says Georgallis has given the club's star playmakers a free pass to play expansive attacking footy - and points to their back-to-back wins as confirmation that the new tactic is working.

"He's encouraging a bit more freedom and letting us do what we want to do on the field, playing things as we see them," he said.

"He's given us some structure as well, but at the end of the day we've got to play with that structure out there, so we play what we see which is good.

"He just wants us to play more footy. It's not just a grinding play coming out, it's promoting the football. I enjoyed it, and it's showing on the scoreboard."

Stand-in skipper Trent Waterhouse echoed Kingston's thoughts.

"The next nine weeks plus, I think we're playing a really good brand offooty and I'm pretty excited about the rest of this year," said Waterhouse, who this week signed a deal with English Super League club Warrington.

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