I think the Panthers will use this week to really ram the message home to the competition. Nathan returns this week and he will want to show he is ready for the finals push. All the team is refreshed and got some well deserved rest. It’s time to put a exclamation mark on this season.
A great home crowd, great weather and we got the 2 points.
Even for that first 30 minutes, felt we didn’t get out of 2nd gear, then basically stuck the transmission into angel gear for the rest of the game.
That said we just did what we had to do, and no one on the team disappointed.
I will give two shout outs though, firstly to Kenny - I thought he just played out of his skin. Yes he got tired and needed a break at the end, but his defence and service was outstanding as usual. That pass to Yeo for his try was absolutely sublime.
Second shout out is to Lindsay Smith. He will pick up the Panthers rookie of the year award by a country mile. Not only does he run good lines hard, his defense today was outstanding. No missed tackles, and some of those were 1:1 on the tryline. Hasn’t taken a backward step since coming into first grade this year.
We didn’t beat them by a huge margin, but obviously that wasn’t their intent.
We can’t idle against the sharks next Saturday, they may be sloppy in defence, but as todays game against Manly showed, they can attack from their own half, and come back to bite if you let them in.
The first 30 minutes were dominant, the Bulldogs were choked of opportunity, and the Bulldogs couldn’t find a way to turn the momentum. At times they were out scoring the clock.
That being said it seemed we were in second gear, but getting the job done.
The second half the Panthers just seemed to take their foot off the pedal and coast it till full time, allowing the Bulldogs to capitalise on some sloppy defence at the backend of the second half.
I feel if they just played to their potential it would have been a devastating scoreline and really sent a message. I know it’s probably not a great thing saying this about a 44-18 scoreline, but I felt a tad disappointed. I felt we had 50+ in us, but again we fell short of the half century.
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