If you think the testosterone will be restricted to the North Queensland and Brisbane dressing rooms at ANZ Stadium on Sunday, think again. Cold Chisel are determined to pull off some massive hits of their own during the pre-match entertainment.

They're primed for it, with rock legend Jimmy Barnes sounding more like a coach than performing artist when he described the band's rehearsal sessions for the big event.

"We've been rehearsing, we hammer each other pretty hard," said Barnes, a diehard Wests Tigers supporter.

"We all push each other to the limit. We rehearse like we play shadows ... we play hard and we play fast ... and each of us prods the other one to get the most out of each other.

"We're champing at the bit, ready to go. Remember what we're doing, remember why we get out there ... the most important thing for us is to get out there and have a great time. If we have a great time playing ultimately the audience does too."

Barnes said the band would be driven by the same emotion as the Broncos and Cowboys players - pride.

"We don't get nervous for many shows but the band was quite nervous about this because we want it to be great," said Barnes. "We want it to be exceptional for the punters."

With that, Barnes and Australian music's answer to 'The Don' - Don Walker - who penned such classics as Khe Sanh, Choirgirl and Saturday Night, revealed the playlist that should rock the foundations of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Stadium and help fans get into the zone.

"We're doing four songs," said Barnes. "The first song is going to be Alone For You which is the first track off the new album, The Perfect Crime.

"Then we're going to hit them with some favourites. We're going to do Khe Sanh, Flame Trees and Bow River and we figure our audience, and the rugby league audience, will be pumped up to hear those songs."

Sounding more like one of the grand final coaches than the performer who boasts the highest number of hit albums of any Australian artist, Barnes said of the crowd: "We're going to hit them hard."

Barnes, who combined with Tina Turner for rugby league's most memorable - Simply The Best - advertising campaign in the 1990s said Walker and the rest of Cold Chisel had good reason to approach their performance with the same focus as Johnathan Thurston or Justin Hodges.

"It's such a big event for us," said Barnes. "We've done a lot of big gigs over the years and to be involved is great because I see this as one of the great sporting events of the world.

"There's not a tougher sporting event and probably not a tougher crowd in the world. I've seen a few of these and it's always a tough gig.

"We're pumped to have been asked to do it but we're doing a lot on our own terms. We've put in a great stage ... it's actually a big production. We're going to try and make this as great for the game as possible, We want to go out and kill people so they're pumped when this game starts."

Walker, who was born in the North Queensland township of Ayr but has supported Brisbane since they formed in 1988, said when the proposal of playing at the NRL grand final was put to him he raised a valid point.

"I'm excited just to be at the grand final," he enthused. "When our managers ran this past me 18 months or two years ago I said the thing about playing the grand final is it doesn't matter how you organise it, you're not the main thing happening that day."

Although Cold Chisel, who have just started their One Night Stand tour, might challenge that thinking. At the very least, and just like the players, expect them to leave a bit of themselves out in the middle.