Frank Pritchard: Penrith Panthers can win the NRL
PENRITH players revealed after flogging the Warriors their pact to repay coach Matthew Elliott for listening to their complaints, with second-rower Frank Pritchard declaring "this team can win a premiership". The Panthers, dismal 48-12 losers to Brisbane in round one, blasted eight tries past the hapless Aucklanders on the way to a 46-22 win at CUA Stadium yesterday with Pritchard, winger Michael Gordon and centre Michael Jennings each posting two.
Yet only two months ago the club was riven by talk of disharmony with players meeting Elliott and his assistants to express concerns over their energy-sapping training routine.
"The coaching staff have been really good in meeting us halfway with the gameplan and the way the training is," prop Tony Puletua told The Daily Telegraph last night. "It's really come back a lot over the last few weeks.
"This was about us giving back, meeting them (halfway) as well, with our performances on the field."
Pritchard, who not so long ago asked for a release, was a one-man tornado yesterday and said afterwards: "Last year's training session wasn't laid back, (it was) balanced.
'For them to listen to us (was gratifying) - then it was up to us to do our job as well, and that's on the paddock."
Pritchard compared the current Panthers to John Lang's 2003 premiership side.
"They set the bar," he said.
"But the team we've got on paper now - this team can win a premiership.
"It's just a matter of sticking to the gameplan and showing up on game day ready to play." .
Yesterday's was easily the most spectacular of Penrith's five wins this year, the players such as fullback Rhys Wesser initiating some sizzling breaks as the mountain men turned a 22-6 halftime advantage into a crushing 40-6 lead with 26 minutes left.
Probably the pick of the tries came two minutes short of halftime when New Zealand international Pritchard fielded a Grant Rovelli kick near his own line and set sail upfield before unloading to Jennings, who scorched the turf to elude the defence over the remaining 65 metres to the line.
Wesser admitted there were divisions in the camp in 2007 when "there were young guys coming through and they were separated, the young guys from the old guys.
"We've got to know each other," he said.
Elliott thanked the players for their input but denied that he should have adopted the ideas earlier.
"The players gave us some really constructive and important feedback. That's why you've got leadership groups," he said. "This guy (Luke Priddis) has played 250 games of first grade.
"If you're not going to take the advice and opinion of those guys, I think in the modern game you're a pretty naive coach.
"I certainly don't want to be seen as that.
"The day you don't take the opportunity to enjoy training, the day coaches don't set up structures to make it entertaining, maybe that's when we should get a job on the stock exchange."
Asked if the meeting helped the team Elliott said: "I think the results display that".
Halfback Luke Lewis was also a standout, having a hand in four tries as he tries to keep his spot ahead of Jarrod Sammut.
The Warriors have now not only failed to win away but conceded a mountain of points and when asked if the players would have to address the issue, captain Michael Luck said: "Well, I suppose we've got to now. But we've got to approach it as a game of footy . . . on a rectangular field, exactly the same as we play on in New Zealand."
