Here he is, seems like the youth factor is his excuse now:
http://wwos.nine.com.au/2017/04/17/...rs-didnt-handle-the-pressure-against-cronulla
Channel Nine's Phil Gould says Penrith Panthers didn't handle the pressure against Cronulla Sharks
The Cronulla Sharks travelled to Pepper Stadium Penrith yesterday afternoon and handed out a 28-2 defeat to the Panthers.
The scoreline would suggest the visitors dished out something of a thumping to the home side.
I don’t know so much. Don’t get me wrong, the Cronulla Sharks were far too good on the day. I just don’t think the Panthers were too far away from making a real game of this one.
The same thing happened to them in Melbourne a few weeks ago. It’s no coincidence the two teams that have beaten Panthers in almost identical manner and scorelines in recent times, the Sharks, and the Storm, were last year’s Grand Finalists. These are battle-hardened teams with great experience in big matches.
At this stage, the Panthers just don’t have the necessary experience or tools to get maximum reward for their efforts. They have excellent periods of play, but don’t seem to be able to deal with the disappointment if points aren’t coming straight away.
The Panthers are being recognised by most experts as a team with tremendous potential. What yesterday showed is that this potential has a long way to go and these players still have a lot to learn.
Games like yesterday are all part of the learning process. Playing against quality opposition in games of this nature represents valuable experience and will help mold these players and this team for the future.
There were some important lessons handed out by the Sharks to the Panthers in this match. In some ways, that’s to be expected. There was a considerable difference in age and experience between the two teams.
If you’re going to win games consistently at the elite level, there are two things you must really learn to do. Firstly, you must learn how to apply pressure. Secondly, you must learn how to deal with pressure when it’s being applied to you.
That was pretty much the difference between the two teams yesterday.
The Sharks are a tough, hard-nosed football team, boasting plenty of experience. They have played a lot of football together in big games and have learned to be both aggressive and patient at the same time. They have formed excellent combinations and a simple style of play that stands up under pressure. They know each other very well and trust one another implicitly. It shows in their attack, and their defence.
When pressure is being applied to them and things aren’t going so well, there is no sign of panic. They hang tough together and wait for the tide to turn.
Conversely, the Sharks have learned to apply intends pressure to their opponents for long periods of time. Once they get them down they don’t let them up so easily. At the same time, they are patient in attack, trusting that if they just stick to what they know, the points will eventually come. This was never more evident than the first 15 minutes of the second half, where they tied up the Panthers to their own end of the field for what seemed an eternity.
This was a competitive and interesting game of football for the first 35 minutes of play.
There wasn’t much between the two teams. The only try scored up to this point came from a brilliant little grubber kick from Shark’s halfback Chad Townsend for his 5/8 partner James Maloney.
For most of the first half, it could be argued the Panthers had the better of play.
Try as they may to apply pressure on the Sharks, they just couldn’t seem to get themselves organised. Their attacking game became a little frantic. There was a lot of impatience. They came up with a couple of poor options and had the disappointment of going close to scoring a couple of times. They didn’t deal with these disappointments well and were immediately punished by the Sharks who went down the other end of the field to score points against the run of play.
It was interesting to watch too, that whilst the Panthers were trying to mount pressure at the Sharks end of the field, the Shark’s defenders were themselves very aggressive in applying pressure to the young Panther playmakers.
This is the mark of a good team. The Sharks not only dealt with pressure, they hit back by applying some pressure of their own.
The game took a distinct turn either side of the half-time break, where the Sharks posted a try in the last few minutes of the first half, and scored in the opening minutes of the second half with a well-constructed try to centre Jack Bird.
In the space of a few minutes the Panthers had gone from a four-point deficit, in a closely-fought battle, to a 12-point deficit. The scoreboard now got into the heads of the Panthers players.
From this point, you could feel the frustration start to build. The Sharks dominated the opening 20 minutes of the second half and really turned up the heat on their younger opponents.
The Panthers lost contact with the physicality of the contest, allowing the Sharks to roll through their attacking plays without any real pressure being applied to them by the defensive line.
Like I said earlier, this is in stark contrast to the period where the Panthers were trying to apply pressure to the Sharks. The Sharks defensive line retaliated immediately by applying some pressure of their own, until it forced the Panthers into error
The over-riding feeling you had watching the match was that the Sharks looked controlled and aggressive in everything they did with the ball. The Panthers looked good for short periods of time, but were unable to sustain the quality anywhere near long enough.
The Sharks maintained their composure and looked clinical with the ball in hand. The Panthers tried to get things happening, but too often succumbed the defensive pressure being applied by the Sharks and eventually spiralled out of control.
Coming into yesterday's match the young Panther duo of Nathan Cleary and Te Maire Martin had only played 33 NRL games between them. They had only played together on a handful of occasions. What I liked about the two lads is that they never backed away at any stage of the game. They kept trying. They are tough kids.
It's a major factor in football these days. Time spent playing together allows combinations to grow and belief to build. You get the feeling this current Sharks squad is ready for any challenge and only getting better.
Once the Sharks forwards started to dominate and get the Panthers back-pedalling, this allowed playmakers Chad Townsend and James Moloney plenty of time and space to spark the Shark's attacking game.
They tormented the Panthers defensive line through the middle of the ruck and down the edges of the field. At one point in the second half they were stringing together offloads at will, as the fatiguing defenders started to drop off tackles. The Sharks looked threatening on every play.
All honours were with the Sharks. They were far too good on the day. They are a quality team and will always be hard to beat.
The Panthers have plenty of work to do.
