[2024] R17 Panthers v Cowboys - Game Day Thread

2024 Game Day Archive
21

I don’t generally believe in premonitions, but when the first kick went out, followed by two early errors, I thought that the signs were bad. ’Attention to detail’ came to mind, and our much-vaunted systems seemed hard to spot.

Turuva and Tago continue to be among the most porous defensive combinations in the NRL. How many times will Turuva aim up against the Centre, leaving his winger unmarked. Are these two inept, or is our defensive coaching team blind to it? WTF. Every other club will now be targeting them relentlessly.

Agreed all comments on Schneider. I haven’t seen O’Sullivan lately at the Fins. Is he injured or just down their pecking order? I hope that we don’t bring back NC prematurely in an act of desperation.
We seemed to have zero idea of how to break the Nth Qld defence. Maybe some folks in the media will stop death-riding Luai’s performances now.

If the finals are played on wet tracks, we would appear to be headed for an early exit.

If you were ever looking for a definition of ‘underwhelmed’, looking around the crowd at the end of the game would be a good start. Has there been a Penrith game in recent memory when it was so hard to find 3 contenders for MoM?

There seems to be a consistent pattern with grubber kicks behind the enemy line. All our backs rush through, so that if an ordinary kick bounces of the opposition and is picked up by them, they have open space in front and a try invariably results, particularly as we have never had super-fast backs. Perhaps I’m naïve, but I’d have thought that it would wise to have at least one hanging back to clean up the scraps.

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22

Sean O’Sullivan is playing in Queensland Cup for the Redcliffe Dolphins.

23

If SOS is down the pecking order, it might be worth trying to lure him back…

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24

Not sure we need to send SOS a S.O.S.

With Edwards back next week, I’d be tempted to give Laurie a shot a 5/8 and have Cole on the bench. If he plays for that opportunities as he has at Fullback, he may be what we are looking for in the halves.

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25

I’m thinking more along the lines of next year after Luai leaves. Our depth doesn’t look good at the moment.

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26

Or does Laurie come in to give Tago or Turuva a spell?

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27

What a miserable evening that was with both the weather (huddled under the southern bar awning) and the game.

I won’t repeat what others have correctly said but just add what I can.

I think Laurie belongs in the centres or on the wing. While he was great with his catches and runs, and fine with his one on one defence, in no way was he organising the defence. Yes Edwards is a hard yardstick to measure against, but we were just lost.

Speaking of lost - while Cole, Schneider and Telauo all may be ok outside of a genuine playmaker, it showed they are all lacking when it comes to game control.

I thought our debutants both played well, and for the most part our forwards did the job asked of them. Let down by the halves, and not to mention Tago and Turuva who in my opinion both need a spell in cup.

I do wish we learnt how to play wet weather football.

I have high hopes next week will be very different

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28

Once again we faced a team up for their game against the premiers. I haven’t seen the stats, but the cows did not seem to make too many errors, and made the most of their opportunities scoring their 3 tries. I think the difference came down to some poor defence out wide & the fact that the cows had Townsend & Drinkwater as their playmakers & we were missing ours.
I thought our forwards were very good, and did enough for us to have won, if our attack was anywhere near on song.
My biggest concern right now is with Tago - he seems to be way off & making too many errors. Early in the game he broke the line and then just dropped the ball cold?? Maybe he is really missing NC?
We should have close to our best team for Fri night & we can then kick-on & give this thing a good shake. I am yet to see a team we cannot beat, so don’t give up too early.

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29

The bad part is that neither side had that many errors and had high completion rates (Cowboys 86% / Panthers 75%), though Penriths did fall late in the game due to playing catchup in the last 20 minutes.

We had a lions share of attacking opportunities but our attack just fell flat, The Schneider / Cole combination just doesn’t work that well. Had Luai played on Sunday, we may have got away with the chocolates. There was nobody organising from the halves, you could see Yeo and Kenny trying to organise something in lieu of chatter from the halves.

Well… we move on right? Luai back next week, then the Bye, and then the return of Cleary. Hopefully this mess is behind us for now.

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30

The talk about our halves combination for next year is way too early for many reasons but the first hinges on the fitness of Cleary where imo there are doubts about his return date for this year let alone his ability to turn out for an entire season as demonstrated over the last 2 seasons.

In the first instance we need a good to very good 7 reserve and Schneider is not it, Cogger was much better and offered more in our system.

Cole is not a 6 solution for next year either imo…he is average at best, he has no exceptional pace and his defence is Ok, in short he is average and any of the good to better teams pose questions on both sides and need a highly capable 7 and 6

this means we need a 6 and 7.

some sides have pace to burn in their halves and we don’t, we don’t have pace anywhere in our team.

Laurie is quick in open space but so was Bradman Best as shown on the weekend.

Laurie offers a chance off the bench but he isn’t really a utility ala Salmons role.
We as have most teams have 3 forwards on the bench and a good utility player and Laurie just doesn’t offer a utility players role.

This is the dilemma for us, we need to find a highly regarded 7 and of course a 6 to replace Luai.

That is our highest priority along with another high quality Prop and Centre

easy for me to suggest what we need but is harder to find in reality but surely we have some cash with JFH, Luai and Turuva leaving us.

sadly the May issue still hangs over us and chews up valuable money

all that being said we still have to navigate what is ahead for this season and it all hinges on Nathan’s return.
and just hope the club are reaching out to who may be available as it appears Bulldogs and Roosters are still managing to secure players ahead of next year.