Takeaways:
Yeo & Edwards - best on ground. No other players came close to their performance. I have no doubts that they are the reason Panthers got across the line in this game.
Smith & Kenny - I thought they were the next best. Tried and toiled hard. Smith is shaping up as a sound starting prop going off his limited opportunities to date.
Centers - between Tago’s form slump and May not passing the ball I think these two need to be pulled aside and leadership group have a chat to them and rally behind them. Alamoti is killing it in reserve grade, McLean is an athlete - there’s competition there and the boys need to realise that they need to be better or risk going to cup for a week. Btw I think May can fix his lack of passing and I think Tago’s form slump has coincided with Cleary being out but they need to be better.
Discipline - it was poor again. Ivan needs to have an intervention with the squad and put pressure on under performing players.
Halves - no awareness that second rowers were playing at center or Cook at fullback. Needs to be better. Can’t all be on Nathan Cleary when he is on the field. Luai was slipping way too much instead of taking the line on and using his outside men.
Starts - if Souths weren’t as bad as they were then Panthers would have lost this game. The first 10 mins of each half was diabolical from an error, missed tackles and discipline point of view.
Overall - hard to say if the side is building or just holding on for now. They aren’t clicking in attack which is evident and their defence is shaky at times. They were poor tonight but Souths were poorer and had a million injuries - Panthers finished the game strong which was good to see though.
Enjoy the win. It was clunky in attack, defence was shaky at times and discipline was poor however they finished with a wind in the sail. A win is a win and 2 points in the bag. Have a good weekend Panthers fans!
