NSWCUP Penrith Panthers v Canterbury Bulldogs 29/8 2:00pm1 JFLEGG Penrith Panthers v Canterbury Bulldogs 29/8 12:00pm1 WNSWP Penrith Panthers v Cronulla Sharks 29/8 4:00pm1
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(1) NSW Cup, Jersey Flegg Cup & Women’s NSW Premiershipto be played
IC has gone with Cole. He doesn’t often get it wrong, so I’ll go with Ivan.
Watched much of the Cup game last weekend & Talagi didn’t do much to push his case, particularly in defence. Although the last quarter was played in darkness - what a joke!
A bit down on our best squad, we need a good performance across the park & from the bench. The dogs will be desperate with their season on the line.
The equation remains the same - win our last 2, and then 3 more wins to get the prize.
I have my own thoughts about Talagi vs Cole. But I haven’t coached 4 premierships in a row. So, my thoughts are probably not worth s**t. In Ivan we trust.
Starting to think in the absence of Cogger, Ivan just wants a semi-reliable body to not be an exploitable defensive weakness, and let Cleary play and Edwards to step up
I think we should be clear here, it’s not Blaze’s defense as such, he will always put his body on the line, he is one of the hardest hitting 5/8’s in the game when he gets it right 1 on 1. The problem is, and this would be IC problem with him, is his defensive reads are woeful which impacts the team structure. I’ve said it before, he is too energetic which causes him to rush and make rash decisions, in time he will slow and the game will be easy for him, but now…O’h Dear !
These are all personal opinions, but I said in another post/thread that Cogger also has a tendency to rush up and put a hit on, just as much if not more than Blaize. Case in point: he’s on the sidelines for 3 weeks as a result of going high in said rush. Coggs also misses a lot of tackles. The difference though is the impact to the defensive structure is not as obvious or significant. His misses still often impact the opposition, slowing them down and allowing cover to arrive.
You are right though, Blaize’s reads are problematic and has an impact on the structure. That is what Joey (i think?) was quite critical off a few weeks ago in a video breakdown.
I also agree with you on the rush and rash decisions, you can see that in attack too. There’s been more than 1 instance in recent months where we needed steady pressure and Blaize pushes a pass direct to the opposition defence. It does look like he needs to slow down with those.
At the start of the season I tipped Blaze to have a blinder of a year, expecting a full pre-season with NC would bring out the elite player. Unfortunately, he hasn’t recognized what the importance of structure is in the team environment.
At the end of the day he turned 21 at the start of this year. He came to the panthers aged 19? He’s young and (hopefully) has a lot of growth and improvement in him. We need to temper expectations at such ages, let them ply their trade in cup and gain that maturity and experience. I always feel a bit uncertain about the next big thing, because maturity and application plays arguable an even bigger part.
The other item with such a young talent is the impact of hype and ego. Th Not saying this is Blaize though. Unfortunately we’ve had some misfires with Cole and Trent in recent years who wasn’t able to go on and step up.
I’d argue we have a number of players who are very good at the craft due to hard work and application, rather than some bucket of talent.
We’re seeing a number of clubs chop and change players in the halves throughout the season. Bears + PNG + NZ#2 (?) doesn’t help that either; we’re drawing further into the player pool and need to ensure pathways are available and broadened to keep the talent high in the NRL. Otherwise we’re (generally across the NRL) going to be tapping further into youngsters before they would otherwise be ready.
Unfortunately for Blaize though, contract negotiations weren’t underway a month or two ago and his position has gone multiple steps backwards since then. Now Coach IC is very reserved on talking about Blaize, so if I was to make a guess, it’s that we won’t see an extension.
I agree with the sentiments of pass pushing and rushing… we are not good at it… and we shouldn’t be.
The game plan is simple. Keep composure, level headed, dominate field position and apply pressure. Points will flow form it. Trying to play catchup with 30 minutes left on the clock is a poor tactic and you can see teams that do it in the NRL rarely will chalk up a win.
I think that you’ve hit the nail on the head, Steve. The scumdogs have a good team on paper, more than adequate to win against us. We need to return to our strengths, as you alluded. Composure, no dumb passes, no fuckups in the play-the-ball, patience, no brain explosions (somebody go and hide Edwards’ angry pills). It’s worked for 7 years now, even with the NRL-driven ransacking of our talent pool. We saw it in the fist 30 minutes last week, and for much of the Rorters game. We live in hope.
One thing I don’t understand. In the earlier games the team was almost flawless. But in the second half of the season errors became common.
I could understand if it was young, inexperienced players making all the mistakes. But it is actually the same experienced players that started the season making those mistakes.
What changed in the later games to significantly increase the mistakes by the experienced players?
I think it has a lot to do with fatigue more than anything else. On average Penrith has played more games a season than any other NRL Team in the past 5 years. Not to mention heavy representation in State or Origin and Internationals (Pacific Cup, RLWC etc.)
I think it’s getting to a point where some of the more experienced “older heads” are starting to burn out. You can see in game where Yeo just looks like he has been through the wars or Cleary isn’t quite on point, or Edwards looking gassed in the last 20.
I think Ivan sees that and has been giving some of these guys a breather in matches to take the pressure off, more frequently now that the finals are just around the corner.
Absolutely agree with you Steve. Even some of our recent losses we’ve finally wrestled momentum back towards the end of the game and have been storming home, before losing it with an offside kick chase, an errant pass.
The intensity has been high from some of the oppositions against us and we haven’t quite been there. The Warriors in particular, commencing with a haka (never done in club game), really stands out. Hopefully the intensity lifts as we hit the finals.
I said a number of weeks ago my biggest worry is that in years gone by we’ve had the luxury of a bye or being able to run the NSW Cup side out to help rejuvenate players before the finals. Last year’s poor start to the season meant we didn’t have that luxury, and our post-Tigers stumble means we can’t guarantee a Top 2 finish this year either.
In saying that we have an awkward run of injuries to manage:
If Yeo makes it back, his challenge might be match fitness, jumping straight into finals; not burn out.
No details on Kenny other than recovery hasn’t gone as planned. Expected to take some minutes next week. He’s been out for a while now, so fitness will be a challenge. Also hope he isn’t rushed back in and underdone.
Cogger is out for first final, so should come back fresh
Surprised at how quick Edwards has come back from the shoulder, would be shocked if he’s not carrying something
Alamoti is out for ‘at least 2 weeks’ with hamstring. Daresay there will be some risk with Alamoti and the hammy
Against the Rorters, Cleary tried 3 short goal line dropouts, and we lost all three. Against Melbourne, we forced one goal line dropout (they went short), and we lost that as well. Is this a developing issue? If it is, opponents will quickly pick up on it.
Tago seemed to be burnt for speed against Melbourne. To me, this is a further sign that his immediate future is as an interchange backrow, filling in for injury in the centres occasionally (like Garner).
The Dogs are giving us a game again. Not sure about the Jenkins no try, I thought Tracey dropped it into Jenkins. Not sure how Jones stays on after his push on Edwards.
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Kayo Sports [LIVE] 
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ABC Sydney 702AM [LIVE] 
Saturday 29/8 2:00pm
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