Australia captain Steve Smith is relishing the opportunity to prove South Africa's 'snake' theory wrong in the opening Test against the Proteas.

The three-Test series gets underway in Perth on Thursday, with South Africa public in their plan to target Smith and Australia's supposedly vulnerable batsmen.

Heading into the WACA opener, Proteas paceman Dale Steyn said: "If you can cut off the head of the snake, the rest of the body tends to fall ... he [Smith] is the leader and if we can cause a bit of chaos there, sometimes it does affect the rest".

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Smith is happy to be a target for the touring South Africans.

"We've got a lot of batters in our line-up that are capable of scoring big runs," Smith said. "They can think that way if they like. Hopefully they get rid of me and just start to think the rest is going to happen.

"That'd be nice - and hopefully our guys can cash in ... but yeah, interesting theory."

Smith was speaking as veteran quick Peter Siddle received the nod ahead of uncapped Test paceman Joe Mennie for the Perth showdown.

Siddle will team up with Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in Australia's pace attack, and Smith is hoping for a bouncy WACA wicket.

"It's obviously got another day in the sun today and we'll have another look in the morning," Smith said. "I'd like to see it a lot quicker and bouncier than last year, that’s for sure.

"I thought that played very slow and benign so hopefully a lot more pace and bounce, but we'll wait and see in the morning.

"There's still a bit of grass on it, I think he might take a little bit of that off. When you look at the WACA wicket I guess you want to see that sheen and when it's like that it generally goes through.

"That's what we want to see from a WACA wicket, nice and fast and bouncy."