2017 Pass, Borderline Pass or Borderline fail

[Whino]

In your opinion was our year a
Pass
Borderline pass
or a Borderline fail?

I don't consider it an outright fail because we made it to week 2 of the finals.

Whether you base your vote on last year success, the roster we have and the pre season hype.
or being 2- 7 and making the 8, despite having a disrupted off filed incidents and roster changes in the spine is up to you.


Let me what you think.
Keep it constructive.

 

[OldPanther]

I think it's a borderline fail. Yes we made up for a poor start but:

1. We had such a poor start.
2. We got lucky that the bottom of the ladder was worse this year to just make the 8 on points and Dragons choking.

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Borderline pass but could have done better and certainly missed an opportunely to do so.

 

[Buzzard Breath]

NRL review

Panthers 2017 season review
Mon 18 Sep, 2017, 4:00pm
By Alicia Newton‌, National Correspondent‌‌, ‌‌‌NRL.com

After a breakthrough 2016 season, expectation was high at the foot of the mountains for Penrith to go a few steps further and challenge for their third premiership.

Installed as title favourites to begin the year, their season got off to a terrible start with a 2-7 record as questions began to be asked over the side's attack through young halves pairing Te Maire Martin and Nathan Cleary.

The Panthers recovered to win 11 of their remaining 15 games with the inclusions of rookies Corey Harawira-Naera, Dylan Edwards and Tyrone May helping the cause, with Martin granted a release to join the Cowboys and skipper Matt Moylan moving to five-eighth.

A favourable draw and home ground advantage enabled the side to scrape into the top eight and exceed finals expectations by taking out Manly in the opening week of the finals series.

That would prove the final triumph for Griffin's men however with a loss to the Broncos bringing an end to a season that began with so much hope.

Where they excelled: Penrith's second halves were the best in the Telstra Premiership. Griffin's men conceded only seven points in the final 20 minutes of their last eight games of the season, including just one point against the Broncos. The Panthers also managed to grind out victories in close battles, winning seven games by eight points or less.

Where they struggled: They found life difficult against sides in the top eight and that in the end was their downfall, winning just two games against finals sides in the regular season and falling short against all sides higher than fifth on the ladder throughout the year. In contrast to their ability to finish strong, the Panthers struggled get off to a good start in games, more often than not trailing early. Discipline and a high error rate were also areas the side struggled with and highlighted their inexperience particularly around the ruck. The last-tackle options were a concern with the Panthers caught out on a number of occasions running the ball on the last or coming up with the wrong option.

Missing in action: The Panthers may not have lost a player to a season-ending injury or suffered a major blow to their campaign, but it was a year of niggling minor injuries that continued to disrupt Griffin's men right up until the end. Former Kangaroos winger Josh Mansour missed the opening half of the season, while Bryce Cartwright, Trent Merrin and James Fisher-Harris were also in and out of the side through injury. A broken jaw ended Leilani Latu's season prematurely, while the Moylan saga was compounded with the Panthers skipper battling a hamstring complaint in the final eight weeks of their campaign.

Turning point: Mark it down for Round 10 against the Warriors at Pepper Stadium – a result that proved season-defining in many ways. The Panthers trailed 28-6 at half-time but pulled off their second biggest comeback in club history to keep their season alive after losing seven of their first nine clashes. Griffin's decision to move Moylan to five-eighth and blood Edwards at fullback shortly followed and proved to be the change that was required.

Hold your head high: Reagan Campbell-Gillard. It was a barnstorming season from the Panthers front-rower that should go close to earning him a spot in Mal Meninga's Australian side for the World Cup. His performance against the Broncos in the semi-finals was dominant and he averaged 129 metres per game after a mid-season switch to the bench. In many ways the 24-year-old outshone new recruit James Tamou up front, but Tamou too finished the year well and never missed a game for his new club. Cleary also produced a solid full season on the back of a dream debut year in 2016 and will be better for the experience of playing finals football.

2018 crystal ball: A few questions need to be asked to determine what next season could hold. Will Moylan remain at the club? And is Tyrone May's ACL injury going to affect the Panthers' start? Speculation continues to circle Moylan may have played his last game for the Panthers, but the injury to May could also force the club to stand firm after already letting Martin take time off earlier this season. All that said, the side will head into next year without the burden of expectation compared to 12 months prior and that should work in their favour.

Conclusion: Premiership favouritism is often a tag that teams struggle with and the early pressure showed with Penrith chasing their heels. Their performance on the field reflected in many ways their season in the end – a slow start but a strong finish. In a season built up with hype, the Panthers will feel in one sense like they've underachieved after last year's build-up, but can also consider it another year of development.

Season stats:
Wins: 14
Losses: 12
Position: 6th
Home Record: 8-4
Away Record: 5-7
Longest Winning Streak: 7 games (Round 5-10)
Longest Losing Streak: 5 games (Round 18-25)
Players Used: 28
Tries Scored: 87
Tries Conceded: 85

 

[martielang]

Borderline pass for me.

Our attack is still very ordinary, but our defensive structure & attitude has improved tenfold. Was also good to blood a few players, although we probably overplayed them at times.

Unsure whether Griffin can get us to the next level, but i think it's encouraging that he's willing to seek help from Brandy, Gus etc. to help solve our attacking issues.

Deserves another year.

 

[betcats]

Team got worse, fail.

 

[mxlegend99]

Fail.

We took too many steps backwards and are in a worse shape heading into 2018 then we were heading into 2017. 2017 was supposed to be a year we built on the previous season but there was very little areas where we improved.

Look at how quickly we are pumping through halves for Nathan Cleary. He has 1 and a half seasons of NRL experience with:

Jamie Soward
Bryce Cartwright
Te Maire Martin
Matt Moylan
Tyrone May

In 41 games he has played with 5 different halves partners. Cartwright was never a long term solution, nor is Tyrone May. Yet it looks as though those will be the only 2 options we have in 2018... with it being more likely that we will have a 6th halves partner for him considering May will be unavailable for Round 1. So Jerome Luai could be the longterm 6... completely resetting everything done so far at 6.

The only improvement this year is settling on Dylan Edwards as our fullback. Our 6 looks more confusing then ever, halfback was settled last season and hooker will almost certainly change through the 2018 season with age and injury catching up to Wallace. We are in worse shape then we were 12 months ago.

 

[betcats]

Our attack is still very ordinary, but our defensive structure & attitude has improved tenfold.

.

Yeah right.

In 2016 we averaged 33 missed tackles a game and we conceded 85 tries for the season.

In 2017 we averaged 36.4 missed tackles a game and we conceded 85 tries for the season again.




We didn't improve at all this year.

Our defensive attitude and structure were better under cleary, much better. In 2015 we missed less tackles and conceded less tries, unfortunately we just couldn't score(scored the least amount of tries). Griffin has made our defence worse and hasn't improved the attack, well done Gus.

 

[betcats]

Fail.

We took too many steps backwards and are in a worse shape heading into 2018 then we were heading into 2017. 2017 was supposed to be a year we built on the previous season but there was very little areas where we improved.

Look at how quickly we are pumping through halves for Nathan Cleary. He has 1 and a half seasons of NRL experience with:

Jamie Soward
Bryce Cartwright
Te Maire Martin
Matt Moylan
Tyrone May

In 41 games he has played with 5 different halves partners. Cartwright was never a long term solution, nor is Tyrone May. Yet it looks as though those will be the only 2 options we have in 2018... with it being more likely that we will have a 6th halves partner for him considering May will be unavailable for Round 1. So Jerome Luai could be the longterm 6... completely resetting everything done so far at 6.

The only improvement this year is settling on Dylan Edwards as our fullback. Our 6 looks more confusing then ever, halfback was settled last season and hooker will almost certainly change through the 2018 season with age and injury catching up to Wallace. We are in worse shape then we were 12 months ago.

Yeah nah don't talk about constantly making changes for no good reason because that is good coaching apparently.

 

[martielang]

Yeah right.

In 2016 we averaged 33 missed tackles a game and we conceded 85 tries for the season.

In 2017 we averaged 36.4 missed tackles a game and we conceded 85 tries for the season again.




We didn't improve at all this year.

Our defensive attitude and structure were better under cleary, much better. In 2015 we missed less tackles and conceded less tries, unfortunately we just couldn't score(scored the least amount of tries). Griffin has made our defence worse and hasn't improved the attack, well done Gus.

What has 2015 got to do with anything? We're talking about this year. Cleary is gone.

I think defensively we improved a hell of a lot throughout the year. Good portion of those tries & missed tackles would of come in the first couple of months & we improved from there.

Watching the games it's clear our attitude improved too which showed by winning a tonne of gritty, close games, which with a young squad, we probably should of lost.

As for the no.6 & the number of partners. It's likely we would of had 3 if it weren't for injury. Not too different from any other team in the league. We haven't settled on a 6 because every time we did, someone went down with injury or there was an off-field incident.

 

[Panfa]

Its a pass we had a bad start recovered made the semis won a game should have won 2 but what do you do.i thought hook made a mistake putting cartwright to 5/8 when may got injured for mine peachey should have gone to 6 and yeo to centre brisbane exploited cartwright and scores 10 mins into the 2nd half cartwright to slow got caught flat footed thought mansour needed to come in when your centre goes in to help as peachey did mansour stayed out therefore roberts ran into a big hole and it was try time

 

[OldPanther]

What has 2015 got to do with anything? We're talking about this year. Cleary is gone.

I think defensively we improved a hell of a lot throughout the year. Good portion of those tries & missed tackles would of come in the first couple of months & we improved from there.

Watching the games it's clear our attitude improved too which showed by winning a tonne of gritty, close games, which with a young squad, we probably should of lost.

As for the no.6 & the number of partners. It's likely we would of had 3 if it weren't for injury. Not too different from any other team in the league. We haven't settled on a 6 because every time we did, someone went down with injury or there was an off-field incident.

The question is why didn't we change from last year. Even more so considering everyone says defence is something Griffin is ok at.

 

[betcats]

What has 2015 got to do with anything? We're talking about this year. Cleary is gone.

I think defensively we improved a hell of a lot throughout the year. Good portion of those tries & missed tackles would of come in the first couple of months & we improved from there.

Watching the games it's clear our attitude improved too which showed by winning a tonne of gritty, close games, which with a young squad, we probably should of lost.

As for the no.6 & the number of partners. It's likely we would of had 3 if it weren't for injury. Not too different from any other team in the league. We haven't settled on a 6 because every time we did, someone went down with injury or there was an off-field incident.

I am just pointing out that we aren't 'improving defensively'. Our attitude improved from the start of the year when we were losing all the time to the back end of the year. But at the start of this year we were much worse defensively than we were at the end of 2016 and our attitude sucked hence the 2 wins from 9 games.


Two years in we just aren't seeing any improvement. Even the most optimistic of fans are struggling to name an area we have genuinely improved in over two years, its just not good enough.

 

[mxlegend99]

What has 2015 got to do with anything? We're talking about this year. Cleary is gone.

I think defensively we improved a hell of a lot throughout the year. Good portion of those tries & missed tackles would of come in the first couple of months & we improved from there.

Watching the games it's clear our attitude improved too which showed by winning a tonne of gritty, close games, which with a young squad, we probably should of lost.

As for the no.6 & the number of partners. It's likely we would of had 3 if it weren't for injury. Not too different from any other team in the league. We haven't settled on a 6 because every time we did, someone went down with injury or there was an off-field incident.

How did we improve? When we played shit teams early in the season we belted them.accordingly.

The only difference between early in the year and late in the year was the quality of our opponents.

We lost 3 of our last 4 games... because we played top 8 sides in the last 4 weeks.

We didnt improve on 2016. At best we matched it in some areas, but typically it was a step back. Hook took too long to settle on stuff.

 

[betcats]

Like I said in the game day thread Hook gets them trying hard most of the time, but no amount of effort is going to make shitty tactics and structure effective.

 

[martielang]

I ain't arguing with you blokes. Goes around in circles. Seems the only games relevant to your arguments are the ones we lose. If we win / play well / defend well etc., it gets discounted because it was apparently against a shit team. We should of stopped the season in Rnd 9 as nothing after that is relevant.

I think we defended well for the majority of the season. We hung tough in games (except Souths) even if we weren't playing well which is pretty rare for a young side. There's definitely a platform for next year to build off, whether we can reach the next level needed, who knows. For that to happen though, our attack needs to improve & our best attacking weapon needs to pull his head in.

 

[OldPanther]

I ain't arguing with you blokes. Goes around in circles. Seems the only games relevant to your arguments are the ones we lose. If we win / play well / defend well etc., it gets discounted because it was apparently against a shit team. We should of stopped the season in Rnd 9 as nothing after that is relevant.

I think we defended well for the majority of the season. We hung tough in games (except Souths) even if we weren't playing well which is pretty rare for a young side. There's definitely a platform for next year to build off, whether we can reach the next level needed, who knows. For that to happen though, our attack needs to improve & our best attacking weapon needs to pull his head in.

I'm happy to cop that but why did we not improve from last year and why does the first few games not count? The winning run was great but surely no one can deny it made them look better than they are this year. To what extent we might disagree on though.

 

[Royce is King]

Pass mark..... IMO Griffin has made our team tougher no doubt... semis 2 yrs straight , more local juniors being promoted than ever, club in finals in all 3 major grades.

My 3 major points are that for all the above positives to have happened the bloke can coach... you cannot fluke the finals 2 yrs straight in the nrl..... but our attack has to really improve next year... we need an attacking minded assistant coach to help with all the other positives.... its not a hard fix.... but we need someone to come in and assist with our attack ..... dont forget the bloke took over a team that played for the spoon in the last game of 2015.

2nd major point is IF Matt Moylan is with us next year , happy to be a panther and plays no.6 from the start, we will be a major force... IMO Moylan is our long term 6.... daylight second

My last point is if you look at the squads for 2017 and think that we should of been a CERTAIN top 4 team..... i think you are looking through penrith coloured glasses
# STORM... please
# BRONCOS .... they are stronger
# ROOSTERS... STRONGER
# COWBOYS... how many of our guys make this team
# RAIDERS... ON PAPER ITS CLOSE
# SHARKS... HARD PRICKS ALL OVER THE PARK

no way on paper if you look at it in a non biased way were we 100% top 4 team..... I think we all get excited on the POTENTIAL OF OUR TEAM.... my 2 cents .... up the PANTHERS!!!!!

 

[mxlegend99]

Pass mark..... IMO Griffin has made our team tougher no doubt... semis 2 yrs straight , more local juniors being promoted than ever, club in finals in all 3 major grades.

My 3 major points are that for all the above positives to have happened the bloke can coach... you cannot fluke the finals 2 yrs straight in the nrl..... but our attack has to really improve next year... we need an attacking minded assistant coach to help with all the other positives.... its not a hard fix.... but we need someone to come in and assist with our attack ..... dont forget the bloke took over a team that played for the spoon in the last game of 2015.

2nd major point is IF Matt Moylan is with us next year , happy to be a panther and plays no.6 from the start, we will be a major force... IMO Moylan is our long term 6.... daylight second

My last point is if you look at the squads for 2017 and think that we should of been a CERTAIN top 4 team..... i think you are looking through penrith coloured glasses
# STORM... please
# BRONCOS .... they are stronger
# ROOSTERS... STRONGER

• # COWBOYS... how many of our guys make this team

# RAIDERS... ON PAPER ITS CLOSE
# SHARKS... HARD PRICKS ALL OVER THE PARK

no way on paper if you look at it in a non biased way were we 100% top 4 team..... I think we all get excited on the POTENTIAL OF OUR TEAM.... my 2 cents .... up the PANTHERS!!!!!

Errr 2 of our rejects for one. Coote and TMM.

Tamou was a huge part of their pack and is shit in ours.

We have one of the most talented rosters in the competition. Our individual talent probably beats out most teams... a bit like the Raiders.

But we dont play like a unit with structure and game plans. We made the final 6 purely on the talent of our players and nothing more. A better coach with some actual game plans and we are easily through to next week. We wefe better than Broncos for most of that game. We just had nothing to throw at them.

 

[GongPanther]

When you look early in the season,we were around $2.40 to cop the qooden spoon after a number of weeks.The coach and team picked themselves up,and ended in the 2nd week of the finals.

If Whare,Cartwright and Moylan had been on deck throughout this season,wexwould have easily been in the top 4.So a resounding sucess given the alternative of the Wooden Spoon,and all the crap that hijacked our season.