We haven't lost at Penrith (in a proper game) since 2019. It's only a stat and I know most of those wins have been with Cleary in the team but I don't think the boys will want to give that record up lightly, so I don't expect them to simply be rolled. I still rate us a decent chance of winning if we can start well. Manly are also traditionally slow starters to seasons.
As for the club backing up badly from premierships, that's how it panned out but the immediate years after looked promising. In '92 we were likely Top 5 bound before a tragedy happened and we nose dived down to 9th. In '04 we led the Bulldogs in the preliminary final at half time (from memory) before being blown away in the second half. What left a lot to be desired following '03 was some of the player signings, retention and some of the coaching appointments (Elliott).
The Salary Cap has already started to bite on this current squad but it's still a better quality squad than most so I have faith that they can still be amongst the better teams for a while. That is the goal, not just to win premierships but to be making finals at least even in our 'disappointing' seasons. After '04, we missed the finals in 8 of the next 9 seasons and I don't particularly want to see those kind of days again when I'm just watching other teams play at finals time year after year.
