Interestingly enough, there is only one team with a better record under Sutton. Unfortunately it is the team we are playing this week.
It would be interesting to look back & see which games he reffed for us. He has been around since 2009, and for the first half of his career we were pretty ordinary for the most part.
Unfortunately I donāt have the time or energy to go through the records at the moment.
Maybe wishful thinking, but I am tempted to think Mav might make his debut off the bench this week.
We currently have 3 middles named on the bench - Smith, Henry and Huth.
Henry could play on the edge, but I wouldnāt put any of them into the centres if a back went down.
Luke named instead of Peach
Well, after an off-season celebrating the 3-PEAT, it all starts again tonight.
Very confident of another memorable season & hoping for a good start tonight.
Cāmon boys!!!
Ouch. Pretty poor half. A lot of turnover and penalties to Melbourne. The fact we got out of it down 2-0 is a good sign.
weāve just had a 4.3 magnitude earthquake at Penrith and Cleary needs to hit our blokes with a magnitude 10
we are awful
I was expecting an arm wrestle, and that is what we have had so far.
Our defence is as good as ever, but we are clunky in attack, and have made some poor errors. If we do better with the ball in the second half we should win.
Our defence is good but they arenāt throwing much at us but we sure arenāt throwing much at them.
I think Nathan has love is in the air playing between his ears and he has some back up singers in Yeo and Turuva and sadly Sommerton might be a nice guy but he is as pedestrian you can get from a 9.
I saw Laurie in the sheds and i would like to see him sub for Luai whose defensive efforts are obviously a result of his shoulder and he looks flat.
we need some sparkle but again coming from my comments about the Wigan game, i just donāt know our points are going to come from.
Cleary has had the break to reset the boysā¦hope he has got their attention.
not the result we wanted and a bit to process
Storm are OK but we are terrible and we learnt nothing from the Wigan loss.
Cleary the Coach has either to train the hell out of them or tell them to go play golf.
For us not to score a point is the concern, forget about the 8 they scored, its the duck egg on our side which is alarming and we havenāt scored a point in 3 halves of footy when you include the Wigan game.
All teams will be up for playing us no matter how bad they are, they will want to beat the champions.
To me the biggest take away from the game is how much we missed Kenny at dummy half. We just didnāt have the direction we needed in the opposition 20, especially after Luke came on. The game was there for the taking, but we just couldnāt capitalise.
Further to this, I still question the decision to drop Peachey for Luke. What exactly did Luke provide that Peachey could not have done better.
Lukes defence was poor, leaving some gaping holes, and his attack was at times woeful, running out of dummy half in circles losing metres for no effect. He put os some kick that nobody was on the same page for.
Our backs did what was expected of them, Edwards safe as ever and May looking an absolute gun, however Turuva was a little rusty.
Cleary had a somewhat off game, and of more concern was the fact Luai didnāt look match ready at all - out of position in both attack and defense, and mostly clutching tackle attempts.
We really missed Kenny for both his dummy half service and his defense. Sommertons poor defense in the middle lead to Leota and Fish working harder, which limited their attacking metres.
Sommerton was also out of position a number of times, with Edwards, Luai, Cleary and even Fish having to go into dummy half numerous times. Lack of match fitness I would think, shades of Katoa from a few years back.
Yeo had a standout performance, in fact all our forwards bare hooker played well. Thought Garner and Eisenhuth had one of their better games for us.
Itās not all doom and gloom, despite the half time earthquake. If history is any guide we will beat the Storm in the grand final now 
And I forgot to mention Luke. As other have said a first grade hooker he is not. A back up 5/8 maybe, if you think of him in that light he was no worse than Luai
Its far from panic stations but there are a couple of things from last night and our game from Wigan which are worth considering for Panther supporters.
One question i have is Cole went from a starting 6 to not even a bench roleā¦what happened there, is he injured, was he dropped?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but maybe we should have started with Cole and kept Luai on the bench to come into the game when the heat went out of the battle.
But that is hindsight and we have to deal with what is in front if us. Another unusual thing which i thought in Wigan was because of their short in goal was us dying with the ball on the 5th tackle. Yet it was evident again last night and now has me thinking is this to avoid the short kick off which seems oddly enough to favour the team kicking out from the in goal.The other reason is we were either out of ideas or we just messed up.Hard to explain why this is a new tactic from us.
I think our forwards last night were Ok, but our backs were terrible.
Turuva had his worst game in Firsts, but Cleary and Luai just lacked something and what was it with Luai going to first receiver towards the end of the game rather than Cleary?
For a team which has prided itself on āprocessā we seemed to lose all sense of process last night, sure we were hustled by a willing defence and at times had bad calls against us, but in the main we never had control of the match.
We had moments of control, we had some opportunities and they will come but i am more troubled by our lack of control and this leads to poor decisions and poor execution.
Which takes me to our scoring ability. Its been missing now from 2 key games. Sure we can call it rust and reassure ourselves it will come but i think the commentators said we had 12 of our GF 17 on the field last night which should suggest wee all know how to play together but its been missing for 2 weeks and we havenāt scored a point in 3 halves of footy.
That is the red flag right there.
I think we missed the intensity Lenui brought to the game when he came on, he seemed to lift our efforts and made yardage into a defence. We didnāt seem to get a lift from any of our forward replacements, they did their job but couldnāt lift the momentum as Lenui used to.
I know we have to deal with what we now have, but that is where my concern is about scoring points. Forwards lay the groundwork to give our backs the time to weave their magic.
And i thought Storm were just OK, they are not a team offering much in attack like a Broncos side but they defended well against a ālameā Panthers attack.
Agree with all the comments about the hooker, so what was Clearyās thinking with his starting hooker last night?
Its a loss and no harm done , YET!
Lets see how we dust off for the Eels next week at home, the fans will expect more than what we saw last night.
We might be finally seeing the result of three years of stripping of talent from the top grade, due to the application of an imperfect salary cap, plus the stripping of our backup ranks as those players look for opportunities to play first grade, something that they sensed was just a dream at Penrith.
I also have an issue with players chasing bigger pay packets elsewhere being described as ābeing forced to leave Penrithā. By and large they leave Penrith for more money, plain and simple, and the almost universal commentary is that they deserve the opportunity to look after their familiesā futures. Yet even those on modest salaries at Penrith probably earn more in a ten-or-so year career at Penrith than most supporters earn in a lifetime. And, with good financial advice, they are financially set for a life after football. Of course, around the world the money earned by āsports starsā frequently reaches levels of obscene excess, but that is a topic on its own.
Wow, some tough markers on here. I guess itās human nature to jump on the backup players when we lose - we didnāt lose because Luke played or Peachey didnāt - some of our main men were a bit off & made errors & we were not at our best as yet.
Disappointed to lose of course (always hate the $torm) but the season is hardly gone for us after 1 game. Melb were up for the game, they are among the top sides in the comp and had their favourite ref, well since Smith retired. A try from a kick & a single line break in 80mins against us is not too bad.
Iām very confident we will be there when the whips are cracking.
Looking at the stats, a bit unlucky to lose again, but dominating field position & controlling will ensure that you will be in the game for 80mins, not necessarily win it. We just need to convert a few more chances & not get called for obstruction when no one is obstructed & we will be fine.
Onwards & upwards
Knock On Effect NSW Cup | Full Time |
Penrith Panthers | 28 |
Tries Isaiah Iongi (2), Daeon Amituanai, Harrison Hassett, Tyrone Peachey. Goals Paul Alamoti (4/5) |
 |
Sydney Roosters | 22 |
Tries Benaiah Ioelu (2), Ethan King (2). Goals Hugo Savala (3/4) |
Jersey Flegg Cup | Full Time |
Penrith Panthers | 14 |
Tries Casey Mclean (2), Angelis Hotere-Papalii. Goals Joseph Nohra (1/3 |
|
Sydney Roosters | 4 |
Tries Hayden Barton. Goals |
On the positive side of the match (after watching the replay there were some standouts.
Taylan Mayās return to first grade was impressive. He is hungry and managed to split a few gap in the defensive line. Considering itās essentially his first NRL match in over a year I am excited to see how his game develops this year. There are lot of naysayers on Penriths 4th title run with the departure of Crichton, but if what we saw from Taylan is just the beginning of his run, I think we will be alright.
I also have to mention the evolution of Luke Garners game. Coming from the shambles thatās the Tigers many had low expectations of him. Heās growth over the past year was great and he seems to have continued that into 2024ā¦ and why wouldnāt he, he has had a whirlwind run from Wooden Spoon winner to having a premiership in his finger. He was solid last night and seem to be one of the few players that stuck to the plan and kept the side moving forward.
Iām with you mrwalker, I thought our game as a whole was āsoundā. I say that with a few points to consider. We have had some significant travel in the last 2 weeks and that was shown in our attacking sets, we were a little off in terms of the structured plays, someone a bit short, someone in the way etc. You will not see another game all year where NC, Yeo, Moses (x2) drop basic balls like they did, and oāl crocodile hands Turuva will get better, rookie of the year will build his confidence.
I said after that game, whoever plays the Storm next week are specials to win (except tigers lol) they were a spent force 15 minutes to go, but somehow managed to hang on, this will hurt them.
Q. How doesnāt the NRL promote the GF winner to a first round home game the following season. I thought the trip to Melb on the back of England was a real kick in the pants to the trophy holders.
If Taylan May keeps that level of effort throughout the season, he will be awesome for us !
Our attack didnāt click until about round 10 last year, so itās hardly time to panic. We only lost 2 games after that, 1 without SOO players, and the other when Luai got injured early. When the attack clicks we will be fine.
Panther Pride man of the Match voting is now open 
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