[2023] PF Panthers v Storm - Game Day Thread

2024 Game Day Archive 2023
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PF Panthers v Storm

Game Day Information
:rugby_football: Match Penrith Panthers v Melbourne Storm
:stadium: Venue Accor Stadium, Homebush NSW
:clock10: Time Friday 22nd September 2023 7:50pm
:tickets: Tickets Tickets via Ticketek (Available Soon)
:sun_behind_rain_cloud: Weather :sun_behind_large_cloud: Partly Cloudy 16°C (:cloud_with_rain: Chance of Rain: 2% / :wind_face: Wind: NE 11km/h)
:tv: Broadcast :tv: Channel 9 (FTA) [LIVE]
:tv: Fox League (Channel 502) [LIVE]
:desktop_computer: NRL Live Pass [LIVE]
:kayo: Kayo Sports [LIVE]
:radio: ABC Sydney 702AM [LIVE]
:radio: 2GB Sydney 873AM [LIVE]
:radio: MMM Sydney 104.9FM [LIVE]

:rugby_football: Telstra Premiership Preliminary Final| Full Time
Penrith Panthers 32 Tries Brian To’o (3), Sunia Turuva, Nathan Cleary, Dylan Edwards.
Goals Nathan Cleary (7/8)
Melbourne Storm 6 Tries Justin Olam.
Goals Nick Meaney (0/1)

Postgame Media

MATCH REPORT

PRESS CONFERENCE

HIGHLIGHTS

FULL MATCH REPLAY

PANTHER PRIDE MOTM VOTING

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Teams

Penrith Panthers 10x10 10x10 Melbourne Storm
TEAM
Dylan Edwards 1 Fullback 1 Nick Meaney
Sunia Turuva 2 Wing 2 Will Warbrick
Izack Tago 3 Centre 3 Marion Seve
Stephen Crichton 4 Centre 4 Justin Olam
Brian To’o 5 Wing 5 Reimis Smith
Jarome Luai 6 Five-Eigth 6 Cameron Munster
© Nathan Cleary 7 Halfback 7 Jahrome Hughes
Moses Leota 8 Forward 8 Tui Kamikamica
Mitch Kenny 9 Hooker 9 Harry Grant
James Fisher-Harris 10 Forward 10 Christian Welch ©
Scott Sorensen 11 Second Row 11 Trent Loiero
Liam Martin 12 Second Row 12 Eliesa Katoa
© Isaah Yeo 13 Lock 13 Josh King
INTERCHANGE
Jack Cogger 14 Interchange 14 Tyran Wishart
Lindsay Smith 15 Interchange 15 Tom Eisenhuth
Spencer Leniu 16 Interchange 16 Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Luke Garner 17 Interchange 17 Tariq Sims
RESERVES
Tyrone Peachey 18 Reserve 18 Grant Anderson
Matt Eisenhuth 19 Reserve 20 Bronson Garlick
:small_red_triangle_down: Zac Hosking 20 Reserve 21 Sualauvi Faalogo :small_red_triangle_down:
:small_red_triangle_down: Luke Sommerton 21 Reserve 22 Tepai Moeroa :small_red_triangle_down:
:small_red_triangle_down: Tom Jenkins 22 Reserve 23 Chris Lewis :small_red_triangle_down:
COACH
Ivan Cleary HC HC Craig Bellamy
Peter Wallace AC AC Marc Brentnall
Ben Gardiner AC

Match Officials

Telstra Premiership
Referee Adam Gee
Sideline Official Chris Sutton
David Munro
Video Referee Grant Atkins

Referee Success Rate

Referee Active Since 2023 Overall Pen. For Pen. Against Ratio
Adam Gee 2011 (6/7) 85.71% (21/32) 64.52% 158 146 1.08
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The game is on Friday not Saturday

4

Last year was a celebration of Penrith, with our club winning everything going. So, Grand Final day was something special. This year has, in contrast, been underwhelming. I even went to St Marys to watch the last round of the Cup and JF, and that is a few hours of my life that I won’t get back. Anybody here have any thoughts on this relative collapse? Have our lower grades been raided by other clubs, like first grade has every year?

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TICKETS

Tickets go on sale for members this morning at 10:00am. You will need your AAN Password to purchase tickets in this window. The clkub will have sent you an email with this password.

If you did not receive this email, you can look it up on the NRL AAN Website, and will need to provide your last name and the membership number.

TRAVEL

PUBLIC TARNSPORT

Note: Information sourced from Transport NSW

The closest train station to Accor Stadium is Olympic Park.

Trains run regularly to Lidcombe where you can head to Platform Zero for a direct train to Olympic Park, running every 10 minutes until late.

Trackwork

Weeknight trackwork is taking place on Friday 22 September on the following lines and may affect how you travel to and from the event. Plan your trip using the Trip Planner.

  • Hunter Line: From 4:40am to 6:20am, trains may run to 15 minutes later than the normal timetable, and to a changed stopping pattern.
  • Southern Highlands Line: From 8pm to 2am, buses replace trains from Moss Vale to Campbelltown. From 9:50pm to 2am, buses replace trains from Campbelltown to Moss Vale.

Trackwork is carried out on an ongoing basis to maintain the safety, reliability, and efficiency of the Sydney Trains network. For train service disruption information, check travel alerts and trackwork or use the Trip Planner.

Match Ticket Entitlements

Valid pre-purchased tickets to the NRL Preliminary Final between Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Storm on Firday 22 September at Accor Stadium include travel to and from Sydney Olympic Park on the following transport services. Just show your event ticket to Transport staff when boarding services:

  • Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink Intercity services (non-booked services bounded by Bomaderry, Goulburn, Bathurst, Scone and Dungog stations).
  • Sydney Metro North West Line services
  • Sydney and Newcastle Light rail services

For travel on buses and ferries, you will need to use an Opal card or contactless payment method. See below for more information.

Remember to keep your event ticket safe for your return journey or you’ll need to use your Opal card, as you must have a valid ticket when travelling on public transport. Your event ticket is valid on trains until 4am the following day.

Note: an additional train station access fee applies for travel to or from Domestic and International Airport stations. The access fee is not covered by your event ticket travel entitlements.

PARKING

Parking is available at Sydney Olymipic park. The closest Parking complex to Accor Stadium is the P1 parking garage. You can prebook parking at the venue for $30 at the Sydney Olympic Park Website. Typically this location fill quote quickly so it is best to pre book as in some cases only prebooked patrons will be granted access.

The next closest parking site is P2, followed by P3 and P5. These are close, but be prepared for a walk to and from the game.

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Seems hopeful at least that Tago & Luai may play :slight_smile:
If that’s the case, I suggest Cogger will be on the bench as 2nd DH & cover for Luai. Rest of bench - Lenui, Smith & Garner/Hosking??

We’ll know more at 4pm tomorrow, but maybe not the full final 17 until maybe Friday.

Just go off the phone - we got our tickets in Cat 1 :slight_smile: The Panthers supporters section was showing as single tickets only at 10:15am???

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:mega: Team Lists and Match Officials have been named.

Penrith Panthers

Melbourne Storm

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Nailed it mrwalker.

I think it’s a strong side. Perhaps Coggs at #14 isn’t the strongest option compared to a Peach/Salmon, but given the injury cloud over Luai sounds the right call.

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I think this is the strongest side we could name, hopefully 1-17 take the field and there is no game playing with regards Jerome or Tago.

I like Cogger at 14, but to be honest don’t know why Salmon has fallen out of favour.

All in all the fourth prelim in as many years, I have got better seats than last year, and hears hoping for the result we all desire

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My perception is that the moment he signed with the Dogs and Peach was retained for another year, Salmon was dropped in favour of Peach. Whether that’s reality is another story, but perception is everything.

I hope Tago is fit and ready to go. The recurrence of his pec injury is worrisome and don’t want to be carrying too many injury risks.

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Hope Sorensen is ready as well, he’ll be Luai’s bodyguard with Asofa-Solomona running at Luai’s shoulder all night.

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12

Had to laugh with the interview of our props on nine news last night, After interviewing Fish and Smith, Leota drops an F bomb when describing Asofa-Solomoa as a “big fn unit” :rofl:

Our guys are pumped to put in a big performance

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Late mail suggests all tracking well:

NRL 2023 team news, Late Mail, Finals Week 3 confirmed team news, team changes, team lists, latest team updates and injury news for this week’s games | NRL.com

Time will tell - team list due to be cut in about 7 hours time

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14

Luai and Tago will be tested by the Storm big men. It’s a good strategy to have Cogger on the bench and Peach in the 18 to cover. I think having Garner in the bench will help. He did a great job in centre for the qualifier.

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Updated NRL Teamlist - Penrith Panthers

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has updated his squad for Friday night’s Preliminary Final against Melbourne Storm.

Jarome Luai (shoulder) and Izack Tago (pectoral) have been confirmed to return for the clash at Accor Stadium.

Zac Hosking, Luke Sommerton and Tom Jenkins drop out of the squad.

The Panthers will wear the 2023 alternate kit for the match.

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Updated NRL Teamlist - Melbourne Storm

Craig Bellamy has named his Melbourne Storm squad to take on the Panthers in Friday night’s Preliminary Final clash.

The initial 19 named on Tuesday will remain unchanged, while Sua Fa’alogo, Tepai Moeroa and Chris Lewis drop away.

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well its come down to facing an old well known enemy in the prelim final with a chance to go for the 3peat if we get through this game with history beckoning.

but we have to get through this game yet and despite lacklustre efforts from Storm in their 2 finals efforts, they will be ready for the game with Bellamy demanding a big effort from his charges.

That being said their 2 efforts have been terrible in the finals series and notably the Storm forwards have been beaten up and overcome by Broncos and even the Roosters bested them.

and this is where this game (like most) will be won, our forwards are a vastly superior outfit and if they play to form will give our backs especially Cleary room to weave their magic.

we are running out our best 17 and many have commented on the bench but i think we have a nice balance there where Cogger and Garner could be called to play in the backs if required.

If the game goes as expected Luai should have an easier game with our forwards belting them up and as some have suggested they will target Luai but this only works if they are in control which i doubt they will.

My only hope and wish is the game is not in anyway affected by poor ref calls and or dirty play (from Storm)

If the result is not influenced by the ref i expect we should win this easy with Storm simply capitulating as i feel their last 2 efforts have drained them mentally and physically.

What lies beyond this is simply too salivating to consider and as i said we have to get through this one first.

On the other side i expect Broncos to win but i think Warriors will really give the Broncos a fright with Broncos and Panthers to face off in the GF

Exciting times and we are privileged to be witnessing something historic for a Panther fan who is enjoying what we have hoped for many many seasons.

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I’m never confident against the Storm, they always seem to find something in big games.

In saying that, they are running out of troops, and we are back to full strength. We are also rested, while they have had to play a hard game last week.

If they go with their tactic of targeting Luai returning from injury, they could be doing themselves a disservice. You only have to go back to the 2018 Grand Final to see how targeting an injured playmaker can distract them from other parts of their game.

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This article reads pretty rough:

High risk: Luai “almost certain” to re-injure shoulder with contact in preliminary final - NRL News - Zero Tackle

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No one know the truth except for our club medicos and the coach. Anything else sis pure media speculation.

I’d rather relaxed about this game, not so much by expecting to win (which I do) but from reflecting upon our clubs success the last four years;

4 prelim finals
3 grand finals (with a chance to tonight to make that 4).
3 minor premierships
2 premierships (with a chance for a 3rd if we win tonight).

In anyone’s book this is some successful era we are living in. Sit and dwell on that for a minute or two, and you may come to the realization as I do that win or loose tonight we have much to be thankful for.

Don’t take me wrong, I want a Penrith victory, will be at the game cheering the boys home. I’m just hoping to be a little more relaxed tonight and enjoying the game.

Panthers by 12

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