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https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...r/news-story/791a8201e9e5fdf5b7198b4ed06d2226
ANTHONY Griffin’s mountain men are the NRL’s flat track bullies, and now even that unenviable tag cannot save them.
Prior to Sunday’s 42-14 shellacking at the hands of if the Rabbitohs, Penrith’s dominance over the competition’s bottom eight sides had them still within reach of the NRL’s better half.
The red hot pre-season favourites still sit in ninth spot, but they’re now four points adrift of the eighth-placed Eels and getting colder every which way you slice and dice their season.
Against current top eight sides, the Panthers are 0-7, averaging just over 10 points in attack while conceding 25 a game.
Even with the blowout loss to the Bunnies, Penrith sit 6-2 against their fellow competition stragglers.
The recent run of four-straight wins that had the rest of the NRL looking over their shoulders came against this lot.
Comprehensive thumpings of Wests Tigers (36-2), Newcastle (40-0) and Canterbury (38-0) stretch their bottom eight for and against out to 238-133, a 13-point advantage per game.
But after sobering defeats to the Cowboys without Johnathan Thurston and then a rampant Rabbitohs outfit, their best performances in 2017 look a false currency.
This week they face high-flyers Manly, and are bracing for an onslaught from Daly Cherry-Evans, scorned once more by Queensland selectors.
Finals contenders await on their run home in North Queensland, St George Illawarra, fellow sleeping giants Canberra and Manly again.
The Fox Sports Lab lays bare the next set of worrying figures for Griffin’s misfiring side.
They miss more tackles per game (32.6) than anyone else.
Their completions (73.56%) are hardly any better, trumping only the Raiders (73.53%) and Cronulla (72.39%).
They concede 7.2 penalties a game, third worst in the NRL.
Manly (7.3) and Melbourne (7.5) infringe more often, but perform far better in the previous two disciplinary categories.
And when the Panthers are no longer beating up on the competition’s also-rans, their fatal flaws are on show for all to see.
ANTHONY Griffin’s mountain men are the NRL’s flat track bullies, and now even that unenviable tag cannot save them.
Prior to Sunday’s 42-14 shellacking at the hands of if the Rabbitohs, Penrith’s dominance over the competition’s bottom eight sides had them still within reach of the NRL’s better half.
The red hot pre-season favourites still sit in ninth spot, but they’re now four points adrift of the eighth-placed Eels and getting colder every which way you slice and dice their season.
Against current top eight sides, the Panthers are 0-7, averaging just over 10 points in attack while conceding 25 a game.
Even with the blowout loss to the Bunnies, Penrith sit 6-2 against their fellow competition stragglers.
The recent run of four-straight wins that had the rest of the NRL looking over their shoulders came against this lot.
Comprehensive thumpings of Wests Tigers (36-2), Newcastle (40-0) and Canterbury (38-0) stretch their bottom eight for and against out to 238-133, a 13-point advantage per game.
But after sobering defeats to the Cowboys without Johnathan Thurston and then a rampant Rabbitohs outfit, their best performances in 2017 look a false currency.
This week they face high-flyers Manly, and are bracing for an onslaught from Daly Cherry-Evans, scorned once more by Queensland selectors.
Finals contenders await on their run home in North Queensland, St George Illawarra, fellow sleeping giants Canberra and Manly again.
The Fox Sports Lab lays bare the next set of worrying figures for Griffin’s misfiring side.
They miss more tackles per game (32.6) than anyone else.
Their completions (73.56%) are hardly any better, trumping only the Raiders (73.53%) and Cronulla (72.39%).
They concede 7.2 penalties a game, third worst in the NRL.
Manly (7.3) and Melbourne (7.5) infringe more often, but perform far better in the previous two disciplinary categories.
And when the Panthers are no longer beating up on the competition’s also-rans, their fatal flaws are on show for all to see.
