[2023] PF Panthers v Storm - Game Day Thread

2024 Game Day Archive 2023
21

Our win rate over the last 4 years has not been seen since the great St George side of the late 50s-early 60s.

Since then only 2 teams have made 4 consecutive Grand Finals (Parramatta 1981-4 & Melbourne 2006-9).

Only Parramatta have won 3 in a row in that time.

If we go on to win the premiership, we will have achieved something that has not been seen in decades, and many (including myself) thought would not be possible in the era of salary caps & full time professionalism.

Even if we fall short, what we have achieved in the last 4 years is truly remarkable.

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22

Melbourne are trying to unsettle us. We have to stop taking the bait, we have a Grand Final to play next week
:rofl::rofl::rofl:

PS. How NAS didn’t get some time in the bin is beyond me. I get the feeling he will be missing the next Storm game, not that it matters in Round 1
:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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23

yes we have been sucked into a few things but somehow Storm are getting overs on the Tago side and they have missed opportunities

Expect us to go on with this but we need to go back to process.

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24

quite a bit about that game.

I am a little concerned about the Tago side in defence and suspect Tago is still worried about his pec judging by his missed tackle on Olam.

Despite our errors and i believe our game was a mix of good passages and poor passages and we still put 38 on the Storm.

On the storm i held Bellamy in the highest regard but how his team carried out dirty play on some of our team has really disappointed me. I understand you need to ruffle a team but some of his players were simply grubs.

Just on “their” grubs, the ref faltered big time. In the first half he warned both Captains and said he would sit players down. Nelson knees Yeo and simply went on report and wasnt binned, Seve blatant shoulder charge on Lenui and he isn’t binned.

On a concern, Too had a noticeable limp and i think Martin did something to a finger.

I hope they are right for the big game.

Congrats to Luai for getting through the game and Garner has been hit in the arse by a rainbow, coming from wooden spooners to a GF team…go figure!

we were sublime in patches and terrible in others but i guess our attention turned to the GF and if we put it altogether we will give this a great fright.

Enjoy the win boys, you are now in rarified air and you deserve all of the accolades but the biggest accolade comes by winning next week and making it 3 GF wins in a row.

They are building and its just a wonder to sit back and enjoy.

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25

:mega: Panther Pride Man of the Match voting is now open here.

26

I’m still in disbelief, four Grand Finals in a row, and a chance of making the three peat happen. From sitting in a cold, mostly empty blue bet stadium to prelims and GF’s at Accor. What an incredible ride this team has taken us on.

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27

I remember those days well. Sad days indeed, but the beer lines were short. :rofl:

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28

Pinch me I’m dreaming

Fourth grand final in as many years, opportunity for a three-peat.

I would never believed in in my wildest dreams.

Yet this year, it seemed somewhat predictable.

What a game! One I will never forget.

In typical panther fashion of late, then ran with us for 20, then we blew them off the park.

No one had a bad game, and many exceptional performance. Often I use a motoring analogy to describe our performance. Scary that I believe we still have an overdrive 5th gear left.

While To’o deserves every accolade, and Cleary put on a stand out performance, the game was won by our forwards, who did more than just lay the foundation. Leota, Fish, and Yeo all ran for high metres, breaking the middle. Kenny with exceptional dummy half service, and all their defense in the middle stood solid. The performance did our middle, led to no Storm Forward breaking 100m.

Martins line break and try assist, wow I loved that!

That grub Nelson should have been binned a number of times.

How sweet it is, so much to love about this team - again

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29

And one final thing (not related to the Panthers);

Last night just reinforced who much I hate watching games at Accor stadium. Terrible sight lines (despite having silver tickets), the low pitch of the stands, too far from the field etc. I always feel like I am the background crowd for a tv show, rather than watching a game live.

Don’t get me wrong, the atmosphere was ok with the panther crowd around me, and was great we had a wave going for a bit. But give the cowbells over the PA a rest.

NRL should drop that stupid Telstra crowd-o-meter as well, everyone knows it’s not real.

In the most part NRL have made great progress with game day experience, with the music and all, so drop the trashy gimmicks.

And as for the viewing of the game, so from row 14, can’t see the near touch line due to the advertising signage, spend most the game watching the big screen due to the poor angles and distance.

Might sound like a winge, but I never feel these issues at any other ground.

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30

It seems like we all have the same opinions, more or less.

NAS again proved that he is a grub; he got off lightly.

We let Melbourne get under our skin, as was presumably their plan. Pretty normal tactic when you’re being done over. We should have been ready for it. Same for short kick-offs. We seem to have a relatively poor record of defusing them; at times we seem to be not even ready for it. I was astonished when Yeo gave away a penalty on one goal line dropout.

The bad parts of the Penrith game were few and far between. But they included two stuffed up play-the-balls. That must be one of the most inexcusable mistakes in the game, since the defenders can no longer strike at the ball. It exemplifies ‘coach-killer’. And all for the sake of a couple of seconds.

Cleary clearly wants a mobile, fast, skilful pack of forwards, rather than the kind that Melbourne presented. That might be part of why we are so good at the long game.

The lower level seats at the Olympic stadium suck. But I have never been able to purchase a ticket on the next level up. Are those seats belonging to members of that stadium, and hence unavailable for events like the NRL finals?

These are absolutely our golden years; after so many years when any game won was a reason to celebrate, this is like living in a dream. I thought that, after 1991, the nineties was building as a Penrith dynasty, but we imploded. Ben Alexander’s death didn’t help, but there were other reasons too.
People love winners, to a degree, and we are gaining a following all over the place. My nephew went to the Gold Coast match, and the numbers of Penrith fans there was amazing. Back in the nineties I remember a local journalist (might have been a 2KA announcer) noting that, when talking to classes of kids (in Emu Plains, I think) most kids supported other clubs, like the ScumDogs, mainly because their parents did. That really sucked. How things change. Another nephew lives in Qld now, and has a mate who took his kids to a sports store in Brisbane to buy Qld or Broncos jerseys; he was pissed off when the kids walked out wearing Penrith jerseys.

One more week, then we have to endure 5 months of NRL void. I hope the cricket gives us something equally good to revel in; the Rugby World Cup sure won’t. Then we come back to a team minus Crichton and Leniu, on top of the absence of Koroisau, Kikau, Burton, Momorovski and Capewell. It gets harder and harder.

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31

If you haven’t watched it yet, watch the press conference by Craig Bellamy. Pretty much summed up what should be said about Penrith this year, probably the most humble I have seen bellyache.

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