Penrith v Souths semi final

[Crashtest]

All the Lets always be positive Panthers Fans;

Fish is the best prop in the game. LOL he wasn't even the 3rd or 4th on the field tonight. He is good - even great but he is not the best and he has been ordinary at the back end of this year.

Cleary is the best player in the game. Yeah LOL f**king went missing tonight. He still has problems with decision making and lack of creativity. He has no Plan B when things are going wrong - just like his old man as a coach. He still is the best halfback and probably 2nd best player in the league but people are talking him up as if he an Immortal certainty.

Gapewell - ordinary - just ordinary. The less I can say about him the better. Glad we didn't get in a bidding war for him.

TPJ - what a lazy merkin.

Burton - fantastic player but still has a bit of derpiness in his decision making.

Luai - ordinary since Origin. Had some good touches but well below his 2020 form.

Ivan Cleary the Super coach myth should be dead and buried. We cannot break down a committed defence to save our lives. Yeah we can comfortably beat shit teams - even good teams. But not Elite teams who are switched on.

No Plan B by the Cleary's - we just looked lost and worse - we looked stupid out there. How many times did we throw the ball away in the Bunnies 20 on the 2nd or 3rd tackle? So so dumb.

Yeah I haven't mentioned Staines yet - he had a forgettable night but I still think this is on IVAN. His chopping and changing of combinations close to and during the finals has been terrible!

We really missed Leota and Sorenson tonight. Eisenplod is not a Top 17 player in any decent team.

Finally - LOL at the Edwards fans. Critta played better than Edwards generally does. The only good thing about Edwards being back in would have been that we'd have Staines out.

We lost by 6 points mate, get a grip.

 

[Crashtest]

I disagree with this bit here. Our forwards were puffing hard. I have never seen Fish that unfit in 4 years. He was blowing hard after 25 mins. I get that we are a 'family' club and all that but letting him go off for the birth of his son was a huge mistake. He is sorely lacking match fitness.

You think a club letting a player go home for the birth of a child a mistake? Then lucky you have nothing to do with building team culture.

 

[Vicpanther]

At the end of the day I'm just happy we have a team that can make the finals consistently. Being premiers would be great but as long as we are top 4 for a few more years then I'm happy. Spent to many years at the bottom

 

[Nealo 12]

Penrith haven't had a good hit out for a while. They've not fielded there best side often and not against good opposition.
Its easy to forget how high an intensity is required if not played many of those matches.
Tamou was missed. He knows what it takes. When all is said and done it was 1 try loss. Edwards and Leota may of been enough to overturn the result. Means you face the Storm a week earlier. They will be fresh. But you had to face them at some point. And if won you'd go into Gran final as favourites for sure.

You lost me after Tamou

 

[Crashtest]

Huth is what he is, can't expect more

You sure you were watching the same game? Eisenhuth is a huge Plodder of a Prop. He almost NEVER wins the contact. Gets put on his back all the time resulting in slow Play the balls and a set that falls completely flat.
He is a good defender I give him that - and when Yeo is out he is a decent 'link man' #13.

If either Sorenson or Leota weren't out he wouldn't be in the team TBH and he shouldn't. He seems to be on Ivan's man love list behind Tyrone May (and perhaps a few others).

Seriously? Even you said, if Sorensen or Leota was fit he wouldn’t be in the team. But they weren’t, so he was the next logical choice to come in, not because of Ivan‘s man love.

And he did his role, helped hold the middle and made his 35 tackles in his 33 minutes.

 

[tripster]

Yeo and Martin not charged. Kikau copping a fine for dangerous contact.

 

[Crashtest]

Semi final are games with moments of opportunity we did not take any of our if we did we win
Yep clear no support
Kikau clear poor inside pass
Crighton pass to Staines if caught who knows
Capewell 3 times having errors when attacking there line
That’s footy we regroup and get ready for parra next week
All up Souths where just to good tonight

Well said. If I could like this post more than once I would

 

[Crashtest]

We never seem to have support for breaks like that. It's partly a lack of speed, but mostly a lack of players with good instincts in those situations.

I think it’s part of what Crichton still needs to learn when playing fullback. Be there to back up just in case, like Edwards always does.

 

[Girds89]

Hope you're feeling better today @Girds89 being 50 beers deep and to lose like that must have really got to you. Chin up Edwards will be back next week.

Was closer to 60 haha.

Havent read the last 4 or 5 pages but just to clarify, i dont think @Smug Panther is a loser..

I dont think half of what he says is accurate or even close. But hes entitled to his opinion like the rest of us.

Thoughts on the game without putting myself through a replay.


Well critta was great but the loss of edwards was huge.. i think last night really showed how important he is for our team.

Staines.... without harping on, hes just not an nrl standard winger yet. He tried harder but still id rate avg at best..

Momo.... wow for all the hate he cops on here he was one of our better players.

Burton... everyone loves him but miss the fact hes close to our worst defender... i think only martin misses more tackles. And he bombed 2 tries... imagine if that was momo.

Id said all week the importance of your back 5 making meters. We seriously missed another meter eater in the backs last night.. just cant make up for the work dylan does. He is just soo soo underated by all here..

I heard cleary talk about him pre game and have heard others through the year talk about him. Its when you listen to the players you actually realise how important he is to this side.

Other than yeo the forwards were embarrasing..

I was pretty big on giving them a rest last week... not sure if that was the answer but they looked flat as hell..

Luai was poor and is out of form..he needs to go back to what was working earlier in the year..

As for the rest of the season... well the two horse race thing that so e have said on here is joke. If we manage to get to prelim.... and play like last night... storm win by 50. They have been the clear favs for ages. Last night just showed it defs isnt a 2 horse race.

Do i still think we can go the whole way? Yep..

But to do so we have to be at full strength.. staines eiso just arent nrl finals standard.. players like luai and jfh need to lift and we need to be at our best.

I think the thing people miss most on here is we have ivan as a coach... is he anywhere near as good as bennett bellamy or robo. Heck no... not even close.

I knew last night would be a close game, said so all week. Id say bennett was the difference. He has a knack for getting underdog teams up.

As for next week. Well, do or die now.. no point dwelling on last night. Give em some rest than sit em down together and watch todays game..

To all my fellow LU posters i upset last night. Sorry. The beers and severe frustration and upset kicked in.

 

[Crashtest]

Anyone with a brain who is honest with themselves know that our season is basically done. I went from being semi-confident to 'hope and pray'.

Maybe those of us without a brain can see that despite losing 4 players out of our best 17, some dubious refereeing, and not playing at our best, we still only lost by 6 points. And that there is still some life in us yet to learn from this game and bounce back with a win next week.

 

[The_Frog]

You lost me after Tamou

Tamou was a good prop forward and a good leader last year and I agree he would have been invaluable out there last night, but he wanted more than the club was prepared to give him.

 

[The_Frog]

Maybe those of us without a brain can see that despite losing 4 players out of our best 17, some dubious refereeing, and not playing at our best, we still only lost by 6 points. And that there is still some life in us yet to learn from this game and bounce back with a win next week.

Things are never as bad, nor as good, as they seem.

 

[Girds89]

For the rest of the year ivan needs to stop being conservative and tago has to be in the team. We wont win the comp or even get to gf without taking risks. The time for being safe is done.

Edwards
Critta
Momo
Burton
Too
Luai
Nath
Leota
Api
Fish
Martin
Capes
Yeo

Tago
Leniu
Tpj
Kiks

Its that 17. No other variation.

 

[Crashtest]

The problem isn’t next week, actually on second thought it is - with the way we played tonight I’ll be shocked to see us win next week. The bigger problem tho is the prelim. How in the f**k do we beat Storm, I really really don’t see it happening. And if by some f**king miracle we do, we’ll be gassed for the grand final.

The Storm loss to the Eels was probably the loss they needed to galvanise as a team and reset for the finals.

The Panthers had been winning without really being in sync, so the Souths loss may be what the players needed to reset as a team, stop reading all the hype in the media and remember that they can’t go around a side without winning the middle first.

 

[Crashtest]

He is playing silly buggers like he did when he named May in last year's GF. If we don't win the GF, Cleary deserves to get the sack. But they obviously won't being he and his son are a package deal.

Cleary had beaten Bennet 5 in a row before last nights loss, so it’s still 5 to 1. He has beaten Roninson 4 to 0 over the last 2 seasons. And is 2 all with Bellamy. The team finished first of the regular season last year, and second this season.

What team would fire a coach from that? And who would you replace him with anyway?

 

[Dragon Slayer]

I think the Panthers Forum is in trouble.

Too many here for the Panthers Funeral.

 

[The_Frog]

Plenty of vultures in here to pick at the carcass.

It's always like this after a loss. The bigger the loss, the bigger the bloodbath.

 

[GongPanther]

Cleary had beaten Bennet 5 in a row before last nights loss, so it’s still 5 to 1. He has beaten Roninson 4 to 0 over the last 2 seasons. And is 2 all with Bellamy. The team finished first of the regular season last year, and second this season.

What team would fire a coach from that? And who would you replace him with anyway?

Remember Griffin when we were coming 4th and he got the chop? That is what I'm basing my logic on. But after a good night's sleep, I'm thinking a little clearer now.

 

[GongPanther]

Plenty of vultures in here to pick at the carcass.

After a day or so of soul searching, we'll be fine and back on track.

 

[DinkyDi]

I think the Panthers Forum is in trouble.

Too many here for the Panthers Funeral.

How's the preseason going?