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2024 Grand final Panthers vs Storm

Should I make an early prediction?


  • Total voters
    37

Pomoz

Bench
Messages
2,991
All this talk about NAS and how it would have made a difference, is like the "if we had Trell we would have beat you" talk from Souths fans. Sure, and if my Mother had married royalty, I would now be a Lord with six fingers on each hand and strange sexual preferences. But she didn't, so I'm stuck with five fingers....

Just a few facts, because they are always useful. Round one when the Storm beat us, he didn't play. Nor did Leota, or Kenny.

Round 24, when he did play, his stats were 95m and 36 post contact metres in 10 runs and 41 minutes. An average of 9.5m per run. 1 tackle break and 23 tackles and 3 misses. They are hardly figures to have Fish and his biceps quivering in fear.

To be fair, that is a better performance than his 2023 preliminary final game where he managed 71 metres and 17 tackles and 4 misses.

In my view, the speed of the game would have left him gassed and calling for oxygen after 10 minutes. If anything, it would have left massive gaps in the Storm defence as he lumbered around as fatigue set in. Not to mention the chance of him making a head high tackle on somebody significantly increasing as he started to gas. He has form and then some.
 

The yak

Juniors
Messages
795

NRL 2024: Ivan Cleary’s mid-season comment to ‘complacent’ Penrith Panthers that steered them towards premiership​

Ivan Cleary revealed he questioned the desire of his ‘complacent’ Panthers during the season, a moment that stung the players and ultimately sparked their run towards a fourth-straight premiership.

Four-time premiership-winning Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has revealed his players became “complacent” and were “off track” during the year while superstar son Nathan admitted the Panthers lost their “ruthless” edge and his dad was “frustrated.”

In late August, after a loss to Canberra, the usually conservative Ivan publicly questioned his side’s hunger and desire – a comment which stunned and stung the playing group.
Ivan and Nathan saw concerning signs creeping into the Panthers, particularly at training, which the coach wanted to address privately and publicly.

After the round 25 loss to the Raiders, Ivan said: “I totally believe we can win it but we have to make a decision on whether we want to pay that price to win it. At the moment, there is probably a question mark around that. If you want to go the whole way, it’s not easy, and you have to pay a hefty price along the way.”
They were the words which prodded and provoked his Panthers to another premiership.
In a jubilant post-grand final dressing room on Sunday night after a 14-6 win over Melbourne Storm, Ivan and Nathan opened up on the coach’s spray.

When reminded of his comments, Ivan said: “There were times when I saw a little bit of complacency. It’s really hard to explain because it was subtle, and other people may not have seen it.
“We were winning most games but weren’t playing at a level that I thought we needed to. I wasn’t trying to mind games, I was just basically saying what I saw. There were times this year when we got off track and weren’t as ruthless as we have been in other years.

“I didn’t necessarily choose to do it publicly – I was just being honest at the time because that’s what I saw. I told the players that at other times as well. Deep-down, they knew it as well. We have set our standards pretty high here.
“I probably underestimated the Origin series and what that took out of players. And the victory NSW had.

“These guys have played five grand finals in a row and five to six of them play Origin every year, rep games after the season, big games, a lot of footy, so it has to take a toll somewhere. I think it’s only natural that you’re not going to be at your best all the time.
“To win a premiership and play through a final series, you have to find reserves, you’ve got to make sacrifices and it’s pretty clear that’s exactly what they did.

“Once the finals hit, the boys went to another level and we certainly showed that on Sunday night. There was no sign of any complacency when we hit the finals. I couldn’t be prouder.”
He said with a smile in a triumphant dressing room: “I’m prepared to let them off.”
Nathan agreed there were games when his side wasn’t “ruthless” enough.

“I think we did need it (Ivan’s dressing down). We were probably overlooking things and not being as ruthless as we could be. (Dad) was probably frustrated at what we had been tossing up for a while,” Nathan said.

“We had spoken about it internally quite a bit. It probably wasn’t so much signs, but it was coming out in the way we were playing. Usually that comes back to your training.
“To be honest, the whole year, we hadn’t defended the way we wanted to but we found that ruthless edge and our best defensive efforts through the big games, the finals.
“For the majority of the year I guess we were waiting around for the finals. That’s when we hit the ground running and played our best footy.”

The Panthers have now claimed four successive grand finals – a feat not achieved since the legendary St George side which won 11 straight titles between 1956 and 1966.
“The team and staff here are very process-driven and always looking to improve,” Ivan said. “We learn from the past but try not to live in the past.”


I love the stories that come out after the GF. I did say at the time Canberra did us two favours. A wake-up call, and breaking the Roosters the week after. Warriors upsetting the Sharks also helped us.
It would have been a harder path to the GF if we had to play Melbourne week 1 in Melbourne.
Sometimes a loss is good.
 
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The yak

Juniors
Messages
795
What was with that bloody cow bell over the PA sytem all through the game. it was really annoying in the second half!

Terrible when you listen over the radio. It seemed worse in the 2nd half.
Even when I watched the replay on TV it got on my nerves.
 

Whino

Bench
Messages
3,398

Pretty in pink: The magical resurgence of the Panthers​


October 7, 2024 — 5.00am

by Andrew Webster



When Ivan Cleary arrived at Penrith in 2012, the team to beat that season was the Melbourne Storm, who defeated Canterbury in the grand final later that year.
Cleary had deeper issues to worry about in those early days after Phil Gould had convinced him to leave the Warriors to join his revolution at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

Everywhere he looked, few people in the local area seemed to wear Panthers jumpers. They sported the merch of rival clubs, mostly Parramatta. It was like they were embarrassed to say they supported their own team.
Never in Cleary’s wildest dreams could he have envisaged Penrith beating the Storm in a grand final to claim their fourth consecutive title with his players wearing pink jerseys that have become the most popular in the merchandise store.

After Penrith’s 14-6 victory at Accor Stadium on Sunday night, you suspect they’ll be selling a lot more.
The Panthers were required to play in their alternate jumper because the Storm were minor premiers, although what they wore was irrelevant: they could have been dressed as ninjas and you’d still know it was them.

Their relentless, methodical brand of football is as distinctive as it is successful. They keep the ball in play as long as possible, waiting for the opposition to either make a mistake or run out of gas.
With a 65-year-old coach who is still the first into the gym each morning, the Storm are among the fittest teams in the competition. They are known as rugby league’s living dead. You can’t kill them.


Normally, these sorts of arm wrestles put the viewer to sleep, but Penrith and Melbourne are so good at what they do it’s impossible to not admire it.
It quickly became clear, though, this was going to be Penrith’s night. Again.
The first half demonstrated how far they’ve come as a football side since their 2020 grand loss to Melbourne, the spark that lit a fire that started an inferno.
On that night, the Storm’s rushing defence rocked Penrith to their soul. They made mistakes, none worse than a Nathan Cleary intercept pass, and they vowed after full-time to never get bullied like that again.

Melbourne tried the same tactic on Sunday night, but this time the bully was bullied back. While Cleary and halves partner Jarome Luai danced around the Storm’s big forwards with ease, the Panthers’ pack keep trucking through the middle of the field.
Soon enough, Penrith strangled Melbourne out of the contest.
The ball was in play for the first three-and-a-half minutes. By the end of the first half, it had been in play for 38 minutes.
Melbourne looked buggered just walking onto the field for the second half, while Penrith barely had a sweat moustache.
It’s not an accident.

Ivan Cleary has put many standards in place since bringing about a significant cultural change at Penrith following a diabolical 2019 season when he considered walking away.
One of them forbids his players from putting their hands on their hips, knees or heads during breaks in play. To do so shows the opposition they’re fatigued and therefore vulnerable.
At no stage did Penrith look tired in this grand final. Some of Melbourne’s forwards looked shot after 20 minutes.
Australia and NSW backrower Liam Martin was the deserved Clive Churchill Medallist. He was an everywhere man in attack and defence, the embodiment of what Penrith are all about.

His side now becomes the first since the legendary St George sides of the 1950s to win four consecutive premierships, although it seems absurd to make comparisons because the game is now unrecognisable to what it was during those times.
Is this Penrith side better than the Canberra and Brisbane teams that dominated the 1990s and regarded by many as the greatest in history?
Probably, because it’s won four on the trot operating under a restrictive salary cap that’s squeezed out two superstars a year since their golden run started.
This premiership puts an exclamation point on their remarkable run. They beat the side that inspired them in the first place.

Penrith’s rebirth in the past decade has been truly remarkable, and it’s evidenced in what they’ve done for their once-indifferent community.
They’ve been unfairly branded arrogant and dismissed as a mere shopfront for a massive poker machine den, but those uneducated barbs ignore what the club means to its community.
As Penrith have racked up titles, gang-related crime in the area has decreased.
They’ve shown the region’s youth there’s another way and it starts with them wearing a pink jumper.

 

Aliceinwonderland

First Grade
Messages
7,883

Pretty in pink: The magical resurgence of the Panthers​


October 7, 2024 — 5.00am

by Andrew Webster



When Ivan Cleary arrived at Penrith in 2012, the team to beat that season was the Melbourne Storm, who defeated Canterbury in the grand final later that year.
Cleary had deeper issues to worry about in those early days after Phil Gould had convinced him to leave the Warriors to join his revolution at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

Everywhere he looked, few people in the local area seemed to wear Panthers jumpers. They sported the merch of rival clubs, mostly Parramatta. It was like they were embarrassed to say they supported their own team.
Never in Cleary’s wildest dreams could he have envisaged Penrith beating the Storm in a grand final to claim their fourth consecutive title with his players wearing pink jerseys that have become the most popular in the merchandise store.

After Penrith’s 14-6 victory at Accor Stadium on Sunday night, you suspect they’ll be selling a lot more.
The Panthers were required to play in their alternate jumper because the Storm were minor premiers, although what they wore was irrelevant: they could have been dressed as ninjas and you’d still know it was them.

Their relentless, methodical brand of football is as distinctive as it is successful. They keep the ball in play as long as possible, waiting for the opposition to either make a mistake or run out of gas.
With a 65-year-old coach who is still the first into the gym each morning, the Storm are among the fittest teams in the competition. They are known as rugby league’s living dead. You can’t kill them.


Normally, these sorts of arm wrestles put the viewer to sleep, but Penrith and Melbourne are so good at what they do it’s impossible to not admire it.
It quickly became clear, though, this was going to be Penrith’s night. Again.
The first half demonstrated how far they’ve come as a football side since their 2020 grand loss to Melbourne, the spark that lit a fire that started an inferno.
On that night, the Storm’s rushing defence rocked Penrith to their soul. They made mistakes, none worse than a Nathan Cleary intercept pass, and they vowed after full-time to never get bullied like that again.

Melbourne tried the same tactic on Sunday night, but this time the bully was bullied back. While Cleary and halves partner Jarome Luai danced around the Storm’s big forwards with ease, the Panthers’ pack keep trucking through the middle of the field.
Soon enough, Penrith strangled Melbourne out of the contest.
The ball was in play for the first three-and-a-half minutes. By the end of the first half, it had been in play for 38 minutes.
Melbourne looked buggered just walking onto the field for the second half, while Penrith barely had a sweat moustache.
It’s not an accident.

Ivan Cleary has put many standards in place since bringing about a significant cultural change at Penrith following a diabolical 2019 season when he considered walking away.
One of them forbids his players from putting their hands on their hips, knees or heads during breaks in play. To do so shows the opposition they’re fatigued and therefore vulnerable.
At no stage did Penrith look tired in this grand final. Some of Melbourne’s forwards looked shot after 20 minutes.
Australia and NSW backrower Liam Martin was the deserved Clive Churchill Medallist. He was an everywhere man in attack and defence, the embodiment of what Penrith are all about.

His side now becomes the first since the legendary St George sides of the 1950s to win four consecutive premierships, although it seems absurd to make comparisons because the game is now unrecognisable to what it was during those times.
Is this Penrith side better than the Canberra and Brisbane teams that dominated the 1990s and regarded by many as the greatest in history?
Probably, because it’s won four on the trot operating under a restrictive salary cap that’s squeezed out two superstars a year since their golden run started.
This premiership puts an exclamation point on their remarkable run. They beat the side that inspired them in the first place.

Penrith’s rebirth in the past decade has been truly remarkable, and it’s evidenced in what they’ve done for their once-indifferent community.
They’ve been unfairly branded arrogant and dismissed as a mere shopfront for a massive poker machine den, but those uneducated barbs ignore what the club means to its community.
As Penrith have racked up titles, gang-related crime in the area has decreased.
They’ve shown the region’s youth there’s another way and it starts with them wearing a pink jumper.


What a well written article.
 

chrisD

Coach
Messages
14,769
My favourite part was when they bashed their heads against our defensive wall for 3 sets or so and then we threw them over the side line. My seat was there and you could feel it, they were on our line but we were excited and they were scared.
 

Sime_11

Juniors
Messages
1,702
wouldnt look too much into it - players are always going to back their own team and club

we are just lucky to have humble blokes like Brandy, Royce, MG & Girds who all unanimously agree this current crop is the GOAT Panthers team

keep the naysayers and negativity coming towards us - we like the extra motivation for the following year
 

betcats

Referee
Messages
23,956
Was definitely clear we went in with a mindset to do the bullying. Nothing dirty but all the talk and niggle I noticed was from us. Even Larry was giving it to McDonald when he knocked on first touch, rag dolling him and screaming at him. Never seen that from Larry before.
 
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