Peach in for Salmon.
Guess Cleary wants thinks sweet rather than savory 
I hope this doesnāt backfire - must just think that Salmon deserves a rest, but not sure this is the game to roll the dice
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Very ordinary for the first 25, until a questionable try to NAS seemed to wake us up. Have been brilliant since then, showing why we are leading the competition.
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There was no way that was a try, nor did Luai deserve a penalty let alone being placed on report.
How good is Lindsay Smith going - boy oh boy he is making a big difference.
This game fees like one of the preliminary finals against the Storm, Parra and Souths the last few years, they come out hard but we get back on top by half time.
Hope we keep our heads and go on with this
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Great result in the end. For the first 25 minutes I was struggling to pick our best 3. For the rest of the game Iām struggling to narrow it down to 3. Tago probably the standout, but most of the team deserve a vote.
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And I thought Smith was great in the first half!
Wow Tago was awesome! Almost untouchable like Kikau used to be - but in a different way.
Hosking was great as well.
I love beating the Storm, especially in Melbourne.
A 3-peat this year is more than just a dream
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Panther Pride Man of the Match voting is now open Presumably this is Luaiās tackle on Jarome Hughes?
Penalty every day of the week according to Graeme Annersley and his presser a few weeks ago.
The gist I got from watching it was its not about whether the contact (tackle / push) is late or high on kickers, rather that kickers are vulnerable when kicking and you cannot put them in a situation where they will have an uncontrolled landing. Itās all about the risk of injury and being completely helpless when kicking.
You basically CANNOT put a kicker on the ground.
The only acceptable kick pressure is the soft approach where you see players getting up close, resting their hands on them or giving them the hug.
Personally I saw nothing wrong with the tackle, but fits the bill from Graeme explanation. My biggest gripe is we will see the same tackle next game and youāll have to flip a coin to see if itās penalised.
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Good result but it wasnāt looking that way for the first thirty minutes or so.
Stormās first try was lucky; their second questionable.
Still baffled by the six-agains.
Luaiās tackle on Hughes was innocuous.
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That game had everything, some we would want to see over and over and others we wouldnāt want to see again.
A close analogy was the story of the 2 bulls on the hill looking down at the cows and when the young bull says to the older bull lets race down the hill and have our way with the cows and the older bull said lets just walk down and have our way with all the cows.
Storm were the young bulls who raced down the hill only to figure out they couldnāt perform all that well.
Panthers on the other hand simply worked their way through the whole herd.
And i have to tip my hat to Cogger, having that kick charged down could have ruined his night but to his credit he continued on as though it didnāt happen. Great credit to him.
I hope he learns from the charge down how to step a charging player but on Grantā¦how far was he in front of the ref to even get to Cogger for the charge down?
On the Nelson try, well the bunker had 3 simple choices.
A double movement which it was
A knock on which it was
Or award a tryā¦which it wasnt
Then the Luai reporting for the tackle on Hughes was laughable.
Sort of follows a theme many on here have been saying for years, Panther always have to play 14 on the field.
any suspect calls will always go against us.
Storm did what Storm always do, try the blitzkrieg and minus the chargedown and the non try, it was working on the scoreboard but amazingly was having little to no affect on our squad except for some mistakes from players who are normally quite safe and some like Leota who appear to have lost their way in this opening salvo from them.
However Cleary made a masterful change in bringing Smith on who as a forward has to be in the āsuper subā class and last night he continued his high workmate and effort.
That change midway through the first half was the game changer we needed and in doing so, we simply reset and went about what we do bestā¦rolled through them and gave our backs time and space.
As Ivan noted to lead at half time was to him at least unbelievable but to us diehards wasnt that amazing because we got back to do what we do best.
The 2nd half was simply an embarrassment to Storm and an enormous validation of how good this squad is.
We controlled the forward momentum and gave the backs the time to do their job and this was evidenced by how we silenced Munster and Hughes.
The effort showed last night to everyone why this is the team to beat in 2023
We could fault plenty in the first 20 but in the rest of the game we were faultless and importantly ruthless.
Luai and Tago each received fines from the game and now the boys get to enjoy another week off.
This break is key as we now run into the final games of 23.
In my opinion Smith is the find and biggest improver in 23
Enjoy the week boys you deserve it.
I hear Cleary is slated to be back for the Dolphins gameā¦i am sure the team at Panthers will not rush him back until he is 100%
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Love the analogy SBF.
Was Munster even playing last night? He has lost form or is carrying an injury.
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Munster reputedly had the flu all week.
The argument will be Luai got Hughes at a Vulnerable time/position.
Iām fine with any rule the want, as long as itās officiated consistently.
My gripe is this one literally seems to be a coin flip.
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Fantastic performance from the boys - WOW!!!
$torm threw the kitchen sink at us & came up with a charge down try & a try to Sutton, and then got their backsides smacked, all in a game when out first 20ā was horrible.
At this stage I think IC has his āidealā starting team for 1st week of finals in place - the team that played this game, of course with NC in for Cogger, and Salmon in for Peach.
Enjoy the week off!
Cheers
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Exactly, Gogatee. And therein lies the problem, as it has for us forever.
Annersley confirms what we all knewā¦
funniest post ever Mutley by the head of REFS
Annersley confirmed the bunker was right and was wrong.
Therein lies the troubleā¦why not just come out and say the Bunker got it 100% wrong
as if the bunker person gets sacked for getting a call wrong.
My only fear is imagine this happened in the GF and the opposition wins by 6 or less
The ref got it wrong, the bunker got it wrong.
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You can forgive the ref not having full sight of the ātryā, and his decision after watching the replay on big screen to send it to the bunker was the correct one.
However there is no way I can understand how the bunker awarded a try, nor can I believe Annersly understands it either.
There was certainly a 50/50 call for double movement, but then when combined with the doubt of grounding should have led to a no try.
He admits 99% of people would have not awarded a try, that figure in itself (if only an estimate and a somewhat confession of guilt), says that it was not, and should not have been awarded, a try.
And they wonder why people come up with conspiracy theories such as the refs trying to manage a close contest, or a comeback, when they dish up howlers such as this, then weakly try to justify it.
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Iām a bit late to the party but here are my thoughts on the game.
Those first 25 minutes were a bit tough, Melbourne made it clear it was there to come off the blocks early and make a huge impact in attack (and on the scoreboard). I thought the team was struggling to get to their feet and mount a good counter offence as the Storm were limiting opportunities (as well a a fair few mistakes on our end).
The Luai āLate Tackleā and the Storms āTryā started to make think that the Storm were going to get the rub of the green this week and we should expect to struggle.
To the teams effort they managed to not only claw back the scoreline, but go into the half in front by 2, based on what I saw in the first half I was frankly surprised.
The second half was like day and night. A true master class. The Panthers choked the Storm of possession and turned up the pressure, many of the returning Storm superstars were not up to the task and they struggled to wrestle back control of the game.
I feel this game really cemented the teams cred this year. Many in the media had thought we didnāt have the cattle and skillset to go for our third premiership, and I guess a case can be made for that, but there is no doubt after that performance that the Panthers are in the driver seat to achieve the coveted āthree-peatā
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Rewatching the game the other day, I picked up the exact moment the momentum shifted.
Earlier I had thought it was the dubious NAS try, but after rewatching I noticed the next few sets didnāt have much in them.
Then Tago made a big hit on Warbrick, dispossessing him off the ball, about 20m out from their line. It was from that moment that we seemed to grow another leg, while the Storm seemed to deflate a bit.
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We maintained our game plan, keep the ball in play and wear the opposition down. We are the best at it and regardless of how flashy your first half is, itās from 60 to 80 mins that we will beat every team in the comp.
As long as we donāt see players sent off !
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