You know you just have to admit it.

[Quigs]

If you follow rugby league then in my opinion you have just got to admit that the Pennies are one of the greatest sides ever. I know I am and I have followed league closely for well over 56 years.

To win four in a row is just amazing in this era of the Salary Cap.

Every year after winning the Panthers have lost players because of the cap yet they just bounce back producing another local to fill the spots. How many St Mary's juniors were in the side yesterday. Five wasn't it.

And this win and the previous three victories were in 16 / 17 team competitions.

When you look back and consider the great Souths side and their run of five GFs in a row (winning four lost in 69) back in the late 60s early 70s it was in a twelve team competition.

Look even further back to St George's run of 11 straight in the 50's and 60's it was a 10 side competition with unlimited tackle rule. (No 4 or 6 tackles)

Yep the Panthers are incomparable rugby league champions and most of us will not see a run like this again. You have just got to admit how brilliant they are and have been.

Pssst and I was going for the Storm.

 

[bad boy bubby]

Agree.
The greatest team I've seen in my lifetime. Good on them, the way their systems are makes it look like they'll be up the top for a very long time.
They have changed how clubs should be organised to get continued success.
Massive congrats to them!

 

[Craigshark]

Penrith and Melbourne are so far in front of every other team at just the basics. I mean just the basics, holding the ball, catch and pass, kicking.. all the very minor things you get taught in under 7’s. Even captains challenge, they get it right almost every time, it’s not a toss of the coin. Then they throw it away at the end when it suits them to have a rest. It all comes down to discipline. I’ve never really thought Penrith's attack is actually that great. They just continually break down teams and then know they’ll score from tiring the other team out.

 

[Special K]

Insane how good they are. Melbourne is so far above everyone else and the Panthers made it look so easy.

 

[Dragon Slayer]

One of the biggest things that killed us this year was errors and discipline.

In the main you won’t see the Champion sides commit these sins.

We have a lot of recidivists in this team that need to sort their shyte out on those game killers or get the f**k out of the team. (One of them left this season. Good riddance.)

The problem is a few of them are our better players.

The other major issue with our team is that we have quite a few “confidence” players. FMD you have to play the game like a James Maloney and have a memory of a gold fish.

Do you see any “confidence” players in the Panthers side?

They stick to the plan and believe the plan will work if “everyone” is on board. It’s hard enough winning against the better teams when you have these “confidence” players being an anchor when they’re down on confidence.

Look at the players in our GF winning side and the majority of them were so damn mentally tough. If you don’t have that level of mental toughness you won’t win shyte ever.

Congrats to the Panthers they do everything I want my footy team to do. Their fans are so f**king lucky.

 

[2012....Sharks Year]

Yep freakish that they can lose players every year and still be pretty much unbeatable. And to think we all used to take the piss out of Gus's 5 year plan out there. Sure it may have taken 7 or 8 years but it's a f**ken dynasty.

 

[DJDL]

There's no way around it, they're just too good.
As Quigs said, it's a massive achievement in this day and age.
As much as I don't want them to win, you can't help but sit back and marvel at how well-drilled they are.

Getting to that level is an almighty challenge.

 

[sladden road]

Be careful @Quigs.
I posted something like this about Oak daddy’s three weeks ago and was meet with a chorus of boos and negativity.

 

[Miller was a legend]

Be careful @Quigs.
I posted something like this about Oak daddy’s three weeks ago and was meet with a chorus of boos and negativity.

Booooooo

Get real

Wake up

Stop talkin shit


Kinda like tgat?

 

[Dragon Slayer]

Penrith and Melbourne are so far in front of every other team at just the basics. I mean just the basics, holding the ball, catch and pass, kicking.. all the very minor things you get taught in under 7’s. Even captains challenge, they get it right almost every time, it’s not a toss of the coin. Then they throw it away at the end when it suits them to have a rest. It all comes down to discipline. I’ve never really thought Penrith's attack is actually that great. They just continually break down teams and then know they’ll score from tiring the other team out.

The tactics were really obvious but the Storm had no answer to stopping them. They really worked Melbourne in the middle and gassed them.

Luai constantly tried to get quality offloads away to make them do extra tackling. 9/10 times he was successful because his aim was to engage the middle of the defence enough to commit to him but he had the ball in a good position to get it away and his teammates knew what was going on so they were ready for the offloads. He’d also crab along the line a bit to get players out of their normal positions and then get straight runners at pace to exploit spaces.

Cleary ran with the ball more than usual also exploiting space and he got the defence back paddling. The Penrith defence got a lot of negative metres with their tackling when the Storm was coming off their own line and they dominated the field position.

Just like how our 2016 team made Cam Smith tackle to death with over 50 tackles giving him less energy in attack they did the same to Harry Grant.

Plan executed.

Result achieved.

 

[Frenzy.]

Be careful @Quigs.
I posted something like this about Oak daddy’s three weeks ago and was meet with a chorus of boos and negativity.

Then clearly the chorus was out of tune.

 

[roboshark]

Sucks seeing a Sorenson play for a premier that isn't us

 

[Frenzy.]

The tactics were really obvious but the Storm had no answer to stopping them. They really worked Melbourne in the middle and gassed them.

Luai constantly tried to get quality offloads away to make them do extra tackling. 9/10 times he was successful because his aim was to engage the middle of the defence enough to commit to him but he had the ball in a good position to get it away and his teammates knew what was going on so they were ready for the offloads. He’d also crab along the line a bit to get players out of their normal positions and then get straight runners at pace to exploit spaces.

Cleary ran with the ball more than usual also exploiting space and he got the defence back paddling. The Penrith defence got a lot of negative metres with their tackling when the Storm was coming off their own line and they dominated the field position.

Just like how our 2016 team made Cam Smith tackle to death with over 50 tackles giving him less energy in attack they did the same to Harry Grant.

Plan executed.

Result achieved.

There's a lot more subtlety to what they do than just the obvious. If there wasn't they'd be a 50/50. 40/60 chance to be beaten every week because every team and every coach would have was to beat them

I hope Ivan Cleary writes a book one day and tells all. He's a flippin' genius.

 

[Ozzi_78]

Have you ever seen any player in the current sharks side get as pumped as any of the key panther players do? We just look happy to be there to be honest.

 

[R-15-3]

Feel sorry for every middle forward this summer, coaches are going to push their fitness to the max being ready for teams trying to copy Penriths plan to tire out opposition middles.
Another reason why letting Hunt go is a good idea.

 

[Frenzy.]

Feel sorry for every middle forward this summer, coaches are going to push their fitness to the max being ready for teams trying to copy Penriths plan to tire out opposition middles.
Another reason why letting Hunt go is a good idea.

Most will disagree but I think the Sharks have already been doing this. Just no where near as good as Penrith and don't have the second tier cattle. I reckon the Sharks are every bit as fit as they Panthers but miles from being as tight knit despite what they spruik. Yet, the spruiking is necessary to set being tight knit into culture.

Should be remembered that the famous 5 year plan that Beetroot head talked about took more like 9-10 years. 9 if you count their first GF and 10 if you count the first premiership.

Clubs have already had 5 years to copy them if fitness is the only factor. I think they dine out on other things more. Commitment, legacy, hunger, motivation, head strength, devotion and all the intangibles. I also think they have different outlooks on all of those. Different motivations, different hungers etc.

If whatever they do was as visible as simply looking at fitness then they wouldn't have won 4 on the trot. What about how they use their fitness? e.g. forwards not getting behind the line till the 3rd or fourth after long opposition kicks into their red zone. Was really evident during the semis. How about the way they "rest" different players during games and reduce their loads e.g. Leota yesterday. He only ran 22 metres and only made about 8 tackles in his first 16 minute stint.

The human body can only do so much physically. The mind however can do far more and push the body.

There's magic in Penrith.

 

[Mako-Ver]

helps whn you have 150,000 juniors in your sytem.

 

[Frenzy.]

helps whn you have 150,000 juniors in your sytem.

Immensely. Maybe that should be diluted with an expansion team from the West of the State.

HAHAH yeah, as if they'd do that

 

[Dragon Slayer]

Sucks seeing a Sorenson play for a premier that isn't us

Yeah but very happy for him.
Doesn’t have star qualities but does a job for Cleary that he obviously likes as this is his 3rd ring with them now.

When he was with us most here thought he was trash. I think people referred to him as a NSW Cup player.

I’m sure he’d like to show the middle finger to those people now.

 

[Dragon Slayer]

Have you ever seen any player in the current sharks side get as pumped as any of the key panther players do? We just look happy to be there to be honest.

One of the attitude problems with the Sharks team is that a lot of them go into a cruise control mode.

Probably the best comparison to the difference between some of the Panther players to ours in attitude would be this;

Liam Martin Vs Teig Wilton

James Fisher Harris Vs Toby Rudolf

Nathan Cleary Vs Nicho Hynes

When you isolate it like that you really see that Fitzy has a lot of work to do.