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It's Monday morning, the start of a new, fresh week which means we start looking forward to the next week of the competition as we move into Round 8. And we've got another blockbuster on our hands as we take on Penrith this Thursday night. Doesn't get much bigger than that. I've woken up absolutely breathing fire this morning, feels like it should be game day already. Absolutely burning for this game against these guys, I am pumped. Sick of losing to these pricks, sick of them having the wood on us, sick of their smug attitude, I'm sick of everything they represent. I've made my feelings towards the Panthers no secret for the last couple of years, so I won't ramble on about it, but I think I speak for a lot of people when I say it's pure hatred. I'm sure Panthers fans now feel the same.
Making the occasion that much bigger on Thursday night is the fact that Round 8 is the NRL's Anzac Round. One of the most special Rounds of the year where we remember and commemorate those who laid down their lives for our freedom. It's an incredibly important and special Round.
Now, as much as I hate to say it, right now, Penrith are probably the team to beat once again. They've unfortunately got over their early Season wobbled and are now in their groove and in blistering form. It was a poor performance from them this weekend gone, and I think that makes them even more dangerous coming into this one. Kind of similar circumstances to Round 2 to be honest, where they were poor the week before, then came out against us fired up and ready to go. I expect that to be the case once again in this one. They've quite simply got strike literally everywhere you look across their side. One of, if not, the best backlines in the comp, same goes for their halves and forwards. Obviously, the main one is Cleary as just about everything comes off him. They're missing Fisher-Harris and Martin, which are two big losses, but they've had someone else step up. I think we've seen a couple of examples over the years of how to beat Penrith, but it's easier said than done. Queensland showed the blueprint in Origin last year, we've shown it at times but haven't been able to get the job done. You stand up to them in the middle and don't let them have everything their way like the pricks are so used to. You've got to bash them. However, you must also make sure you're not falling into the trap of just going one out trying to bash them, we need to earn the right to shift the ball, and then move them around. It's also been shown that if you genuinely harass the crap out of Cleary, he can be put off, so this is a big area of focus.
For us, this is a big test. We've got exactly what we wanted out of the last two weeks, but it still has been far from perfect, so this week is about putting it all together for 80 minutes and finding out where we're really at. I genuinely feel like we can beat these guys, I really do, but we have to be on, and a lot has to go right. In fact, we have to be even better than just 'on.' There is no excuses this week for being off or not turning up with the right attitude, we're playing Penrith for God sake. Get our game right and we can bloody well do this!! A high completion rate is a must, an absolute must or they'll just eat you up as we have seen. I'm confident we can have the defence to limit them, but the attack still needs to be on song because they're one of the best defensive teams in the comp. I just want to see us go out there with a real 'f**k them' attitude. They're not the untouchable Gods they think they are so let's go out there and stick it to them for once. Get in their faces! We're not helped by the fact we'll be missing Junior and Keaon, but we must have that next man up mentality.
Ughhhh I am just so fired up already! As I said, I'm sick of this team being better than us. We haven't beat them since week one of the 2021 Finals so there's been a lot of pain since then. Bottle that up and inflict that pain on them. I'd love nothing more than to wipe that smug look off their faces. This is our chance to make a massive statement. We can f**king do this!!!
This is war and I'm ready.
Let's get into it!
Glory, Glory.
Making the occasion that much bigger on Thursday night is the fact that Round 8 is the NRL's Anzac Round. One of the most special Rounds of the year where we remember and commemorate those who laid down their lives for our freedom. It's an incredibly important and special Round.
Now, as much as I hate to say it, right now, Penrith are probably the team to beat once again. They've unfortunately got over their early Season wobbled and are now in their groove and in blistering form. It was a poor performance from them this weekend gone, and I think that makes them even more dangerous coming into this one. Kind of similar circumstances to Round 2 to be honest, where they were poor the week before, then came out against us fired up and ready to go. I expect that to be the case once again in this one. They've quite simply got strike literally everywhere you look across their side. One of, if not, the best backlines in the comp, same goes for their halves and forwards. Obviously, the main one is Cleary as just about everything comes off him. They're missing Fisher-Harris and Martin, which are two big losses, but they've had someone else step up. I think we've seen a couple of examples over the years of how to beat Penrith, but it's easier said than done. Queensland showed the blueprint in Origin last year, we've shown it at times but haven't been able to get the job done. You stand up to them in the middle and don't let them have everything their way like the pricks are so used to. You've got to bash them. However, you must also make sure you're not falling into the trap of just going one out trying to bash them, we need to earn the right to shift the ball, and then move them around. It's also been shown that if you genuinely harass the crap out of Cleary, he can be put off, so this is a big area of focus.
For us, this is a big test. We've got exactly what we wanted out of the last two weeks, but it still has been far from perfect, so this week is about putting it all together for 80 minutes and finding out where we're really at. I genuinely feel like we can beat these guys, I really do, but we have to be on, and a lot has to go right. In fact, we have to be even better than just 'on.' There is no excuses this week for being off or not turning up with the right attitude, we're playing Penrith for God sake. Get our game right and we can bloody well do this!! A high completion rate is a must, an absolute must or they'll just eat you up as we have seen. I'm confident we can have the defence to limit them, but the attack still needs to be on song because they're one of the best defensive teams in the comp. I just want to see us go out there with a real 'f**k them' attitude. They're not the untouchable Gods they think they are so let's go out there and stick it to them for once. Get in their faces! We're not helped by the fact we'll be missing Junior and Keaon, but we must have that next man up mentality.
Ughhhh I am just so fired up already! As I said, I'm sick of this team being better than us. We haven't beat them since week one of the 2021 Finals so there's been a lot of pain since then. Bottle that up and inflict that pain on them. I'd love nothing more than to wipe that smug look off their faces. This is our chance to make a massive statement. We can f**king do this!!!
This is war and I'm ready.
Let's get into it!
Glory, Glory.
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