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2021 R20 Sun - Melbourne 37-10 Penrith @ Suncorp

Round 20: Melbourne v Penrith

  • Melbourne Storm

    Votes: 13 72.2%
  • Penrith Panthers

    Votes: 4 22.2%
  • Draw after Golden Point

    Votes: 1 5.6%

  • Total voters
    18
  • Poll closed .

mxlegend99

Referee
Messages
23,039
Well seasons alive on a technicality of not conceding 50. But honestly at our best we are still a 1 in 10 chance at beating Storm at their best. They fire up for big games and are never below their bestin them. You can catch them off guard if you're lucky.

But they dont be beatable in a finals series. Not with the class difference between them and everyone else.
 

GongPanther

Referee
Messages
28,342
Well the positives are we didn't concede 40 or 50 and that Melbourne only belted our half strength team and not our full strength one...We're also far from a shoe in for the GF! I think we should make the GF if we can get back close to full strength and rediscover the earlier season form but that's a big IF, especially if Cleary's not 100%. I think the form of many of our other players is sadly lacking and even Luai and Burton look pretty shit.
This game was a write off before it was played. Although the grit was there, I was happy with the overall performance by this patched up Panthers side as a whole and individually. Just a few fortunate things went for the Storm more than us. Refereeing was sound, so no complaints.

Man, I can't wait to be at full strength in the finals.
 

STORM.99/07

Bench
Messages
2,857
This game was a write off before it was played. Although the grit was there, I was happy with the overall performance by this patched up Panthers side as a whole and individually. Just a few fortunate things went for the Storm more than us. Refereeing was sound, so no complaints.

Man, I can't wait to be at full strength in the finals.
Hello Gus
 

Billythekid

First Grade
Messages
6,570
Think about Melbourne without Finucane, Bromwich, Smith, Ado-Carr and Hughes against a full strength Penrith team.
Who would you back?

That’s really what seperate the storm from Penrith IMO. We absolutely have had similar levels of injuries we lost our hooker and fullback for large parts of the season and it didn’t affect us at all (whilst also having other injuries as well).

At full strength I think it’s a coin flip between the 2 sides but if there’s any injuries Melbourne are far better depth. Based on that I think we should be favourites but if it’s full strength I wouldn’t be super confident.

I also think next week will be a better test.
 

Pantherjim.

Referee
Messages
21,500
f**k we have some cowardly PENRITH!!! fans in here

Not cowardly, just realists. Especially if you’ve been following the club as long as we have and realise that Premierships for this club come but once a decade

We had five key players out today. Gone are the days were an understrength team can defeat a side as clinical as and in shit hot form as the Storm. Anything less than close to full strength wasn’t going to cut the mustard this arvo.

The Storm can hand any club in this competition their arses and I have my own theories as to why this is given their history.

But I’m with @mxlegend99 on this one, I was hoping Annastacia Palaszczuk would tell Vlandys and Abdo where to shove their competition until after the QLD lockdowns are done and dusted to give the boys a chance to to get back to full strength.

Against the Storm, you may as well forfeit otherwise.
 

Pantherjim.

Referee
Messages
21,500
Think about Melbourne without Finucane, Bromwich, Smith, Ado-Carr and Hughes against a full strength Penrith team.
Who would you back?

Spot on.

I’m actually astounded that there are some in here still struggling to get their heads around this.

It’s like trying to teach anti-vaxers about the Polio epidemic.
 

Pantherjim.

Referee
Messages
21,500
So, listening to Phil Gould & some Panthers fans on here, the Smugs actually won that game on paper?

Who said anything about “wining it on paper”? We could have lost with a full strength side, granted that would have been a more bitter pill to swallow, but not impossible.

Anyway, the experts would seem to agree with us:


I’ll make a bold prediction now to say that if we don’t at least get Brian and Fish back for the finals, they may as well start planning for their end of season holiday early.
 
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