Round 21 v Dragons

[Pomoz]

It's interesting, coming into this season it looked like our foundation and strength (pack, go forward, kicking game) should not be too impacted by departures given the starting pack and back 3 were intact. I thought where we'd need to make up for the drop in class (Critta) would be Nath/Luai combining a bit more and hopefully getting both edges firing (previously we've been very wonky with the left strong and then the right, but never both).

I'd say our intensity, line speed and aggression in defence has been the biggest fundamental difference in our performance this year. Most games we are in the wrestle whereas last year teams barely sniffed our line or our half for that matter. Obviously we've had a new prop come in, a rotating cast on the edges all year and probably a rep hangover with our main middles to explain some of it. Penrith's juggernaut is built on putting extreme fatigue into teams and that makes defending your line on the odd occasion much easier. We haven't been doing that this year really and I think its another reason why our right edge has been exposed.

Hopefully we're well placed to start winding that back up going into August healthy though and our right edge will have some time to build confidence and combinations.

Our middles started the year flat and exhausted. Its only in the last month JFH has looked anything like the player he can be at best. Leota the same and I think he is still not there yet. These two are the rock our premierships were built on.

 

[Pomoz]

I'm going to Wollongong with a Dragons maniac for this.

Don't f**k it up boys.

I went there years ago (93 I think) to watch us vs the Steelers. The Steelers had some good players back then, Wishart, Rodwell, Simon and Linder. Even with Fittler, Girdler, Alexander and Carter we still lost and the crowd were merciless mocking me and the missus in our Panthers jerseys. It was a long walk back to the car in silence and an even longer drive back to the riff.

Hopefully, you don't get to repeat the experience.

 

[Chins get the wins]

Our middles started the year flat and exhausted. Its only in the last month JFH has looked anything like the player he can be at best. Leota the same and I think he is still not there yet. These two are the rock our premierships were built on.

Fish is playing better than last year, he started slowly but he's firing now

 

[snickers007]

It's interesting, coming into this season it looked like our foundation and strength (pack, go forward, kicking game) should not be too impacted by departures given the starting pack and back 3 were intact. I thought where we'd need to make up for the drop in class (Critta) would be Nath/Luai combining a bit more and hopefully getting both edges firing (previously we've been very wonky with the left strong and then the right, but never both).

I'd say our intensity, line speed and aggression in defence has been the biggest fundamental difference in our performance this year. Most games we are in the wrestle whereas last year teams barely sniffed our line or our half for that matter. Obviously we've had a new prop come in, a rotating cast on the edges all year and probably a rep hangover with our main middles to explain some of it. Penrith's juggernaut is built on putting extreme fatigue into teams and that makes defending your line on the odd occasion much easier. We haven't been doing that this year really and I think its another reason why our right edge has been exposed.

Hopefully we're well placed to start winding that back up going into August healthy though and our right edge will have some time to build confidence and combinations.

Good points made, probably two key things not considered.

In the past, a lot of our dominance in defence started with a great kick and kick chase.
With Cleary being restricted to just 6 games this season, we haven't been able to pin teams in their own red zone with regularity. For me this is the biggest difference between Cogger and SOS as backups versus Schneider.

Also, the increase in short dropouts (and their success rate of recovery) has hampered our ability to grind away for 3,4,5 sets at a time.

I think the next 2-3 weeks will show whether we're officially on the downward trend - or whether it's all been personnel/combinations related.