2020 season

[franklin2323]

Daily Telegraph has ranked every teams spine and have us in 12th place. I seem to recall Fox Sports did the same thing recently and had us around the same spot.

Hard to argue on paper

 

[MugaB]

Hard to argue on paper

DT ....Fk'm, better that we aren't looked at as favorites, did squat for us last year

 

[Panther Pete]

Hard to argue on paper

When you look at the quality of all the spines I think there is not much between probably half the comp. One team might have a strength in one or two positions but is weaker in the others.

 

[Dave's mate]

They think Jimmy is a loss and he definitely isn't. Also having a 1st grade standard hooker is a massive improvement

 

[franklin2323]

They think Jimmy is a loss and he definitely isn't. Also having a 1st grade standard hooker is a massive improvement

He was good at getting repeat sets and that stuff we will lack this year

 

[franklin2323]

When you look at the quality of all the spines I think there is not much between probably half the comp. One team might have a strength in one or two positions but is weaker in the others.

The same could be said for backlines. That is why I am not too concerned about how we look in certain positions. The reality is many teams are in the same boat but it is a contract year for Edwards and we haven't looked at Luai in the halves for a sustained period yet. So hard to certainly say we will struggle especially as our pack will be strong

 

[martielang]

Umina’s right, Maloney phoned it in for large parts of last year especially post origin, regardless of how many repeat sets he got. I don’t think he’s anywhere near the lose the media thinks he’ll be.

 

[betcats]

Umina’s right, Maloney phoned it in for large parts of last year especially post origin, regardless of how many repeat sets he got. I don’t think he’s anywhere near the lose the media thinks he’ll be.

Yep he did the same thing in 2018. His only genuinely good performance post origin in the last two seasons was that game we beat the storm which he played very well amidst some terrible performances.

Re Maloneys dropouts, Luai has good grubber on him and Nathan had plenty of forced dropouts. I really doubt we notice the difference in repeat sets. Burton has a great kicking games also if he called up so we having kicking pretty well covered I think.

 

[MugaB]

They think Jimmy is a loss and he definitely isn't. Also having a 1st grade standard hooker is a massive improvement

True, but i reckon the DT think we'll miss Maloney in defence..



BWHAHAHAHA

 

[franklin2323]

Yep he did the same thing in 2018. His only genuinely good performance post origin in the last two seasons was that game we beat the storm which he played very well amidst some terrible performances.

Re Maloneys dropouts, Luai has good grubber on him and Nathan had plenty of forced dropouts. I really doubt we notice the difference in repeat sets. Burton has a great kicking games also if he called up so we having kicking pretty well covered I think.

You don’t get to FG as a half if you can’t kick. It is doing it in the pressure of a game week after week that we are yet to see

 

[Panfa]

Edwards should improve this yr Cleary will go better now he has full control without Maloney and koroisau is an improvement at hooker.Only question mark will be luai or Burton in the halves but I have to say both will be better defenders than Maloney was.So if our spine was 10th best last yr we should be at least 8th not 12th this yr.

 

[Crashtest]

The DT has ranked each teams likely starting backlines, and Crawley has us ranked 11th.

No surprise he ranked the Roosters at 1. His top 4 were Roosters, Eels, Raiders, and Sharks.

These were his comments on the Panthers:

11th PENRITH PANTHERS

1 Dylan Edwards

2 Josh Mansour

3 Brent Naden

4 Dean Whare

5 Brian To’o

6 Jarome Luai

7 Nathan Cleary

CRAWLEY SAYS: Penrith’s hopes in 2020 are going to live and die with Nathan Cleary. That’s the reality. Brent Naden and Brian To’o arrived with a bang in 2019 and you’d expect they will improve. Naden scored eight tries from 12 games while To’o finished with nine from 15. Mansour and Whare are proven quality performers while Dylan Edwards at his best is a ball of energy.

But with no more James Maloney to fall back on the ownership of this team rests on Cleary’s 22-year-old shoulders. While fellow 22-year-old Luai is expected to start the season at five-eighth, 19-year-old Matt Burton is the wildcard. Burton showed in his one NRL game what an enormous future he has in front of him. But this will again be a young halves combination burdened with huge expectation.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/s...e/news-story/33bf50d2b0052aeaab2bd9ec5fb271bf

 

[Blade23]

Early days but Liam Martin has been training at lock.

 

[betcats]

Early days but Liam Martin has been training at lock.

13. Martin
10. Tamou
8. JFH


Very good. Kikau, Yeo and Capewell on the edges....I don't know how anyone thinks we are going bottom four, we have one of the best forward packs comfortably.

 

[Dave's mate]

Early days but Liam Martin has been training at lock.

Yeo to play 80 and cover for Martin in the middle when he needs a break?

 

[Blade23]

Yeo to play 80 and cover for Martin in the middle when he needs a break?

Not straight away with Yeo. They will ease him back. Though try telling him that!

 

[franklin2323]

13. Martin
10. Tamou
8. JFH


Very good. Kikau, Yeo and Capewell on the edges....I don't know how anyone thinks we are going bottom four, we have one of the best forward packs comfortably.

Our pack is a monster. Especially when everyone gets fit

 

[franklin2323]

Yeo to play 80 and cover for Martin in the middle when he needs a break?

I'd rather Yeo if on the edge. Plays 80 there and develops an offload or something instead of half and half type of thing

 

[betcats]

Our pack is a monster. Especially when everyone gets fit

Yep I cant wait to see them go round, plenty of chances for Nath, Jerome and Api to run off the back of them

 

[Crashtest]

Our pack is a monster. Especially when everyone gets fit

And strong depth as well. So no need to play plodders like Fuimaono, Sele and Winterstein like we had to last season.

Assuming in the 17 is JFH, Tamou, Martin, Tetevano, Yeo, Kikau & Capewell. That still leaves Leota, Hetherington, Leniu, Burns and Ellis fighting for one bench spot. Plus Blore when he has recovered.