The GOAT giving us a good talking up today:
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/ho...ouch-can-mesmerise-manly-20210331-p57fkr.html
after what I saw last Thursday night, the clear NRL premiership favourites are the Penrith Panthers.
Their 12-10 win over Melbourne and the way they held up Storm centre Justin Olam on the final play shows how hard they work off the ball for one another.
It’s not just stopping tries but in every minute, every play of the game. They get to flex their muscle again in Thursday Night Football against Manly at Lottoland.
How Penrith can win
The Panthers have the band back together on the left-side with halfback Nathan Cleary returning from concussion.
I understand left centre Stephen Crichton goes back to fullback in the absence of the injured Dylan Edwards.
But Cleary’s return means five-eighth Jarome Luai and devastating back-rower Viliame Kikau can link again. That’s where the magic happens for Penrith.
For me, there’s a question mark over Crichton’s positional play at the back but he will probably prove me wrong.
What Penrith do best is back themselves to stay in the arm wrestle for the whole match.
They have high completions, few errors and give away few penalties.
You don’t always see it on TV but when you’re at the ground, looking down at the field, you notice how much they work for each other inside and outside the ball.
When the opposition kicks down field, you can see their forwards trying to get behind the ball as quickly as possible.
When they get it right, the Panthers are almost impossible to beat — unless you are at your very best.
Can Manly do that?
How Manly can win
Everything you do on the field is connected. Against the Dragons last week, the Sea Eagles made more clean breaks, ran for more metres, but were still beaten by 26 points because silly errors meant they couldn’t ice their scoring opportunities.
They’re completing their sets at 66 per cent at the moment. When that’s happening, it puts so much pressure on your defence because of the fatigue from the extra workload.
The way teams like Manly attack means there’s extra reliance on their fullback.
It’s stating the obvious, but the absence of Tommy Trbojevic is costing them about 20 points per game. That’s how influential he is.
Dylan Walker is doing his best but he’s struggling to find the combinations in attack with halves Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran.
They also have very little attack out of dummy half.
’im not having a shot at Lachlan Croker, because he’s playing out of position and the extra workload caused by his side’s silly errors means he doesn’t have any petrol in the tank to create.
But, with the quicker ruck this season, it’s essential to engineer more out of dummy half.
If Manly are to win, Cherry-Evans must kick his side to victory.
With their attack struggling, he needs to roll the dice and try to score a few tries from kicks whenever Crichton is out of position.
Manly need to be as unpredictable as possible because structured set plays against a defensive line as hard-working as Penrith’s won’t cut it.
They have two great ball-players in the forwards.
Marty Taupau has that late left-arm offload, which borders on compulsive, while Jake Trbojevic has the vision and skill of a halfback.
Walker can’t get himself in the right situations with his halves so they need to use these two guys more and play unstructured footy.
Player to watch
I’ll admit it: I never saw Isaah Yeo coming.
I figured he’d be a solid centre who doesn’t miss tackles, doesn’t make errors, but the decision to move him into the forward pack has been a masterstroke.
He gets better and better each season. He plays 80 minutes, does all the tough stuff in the middle and cleans up the defensive errors of others.
When I talk about doing work off the ball, this is the bloke who does so much of it. His efforts aren’t for himself – they’re for his teammates.
And his ball-playing and pass selection is improving with every game.
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Didnt copy the last bit as its some playbook shit and it wont make sense without the visuals
