Iām conflicted. I think Edwards needs to be rested and take some pressure of his knee.
Butā¦ NSW Cup play their first week of finals in an elimination match and bringing Laurie in will leave the NSW Cup without a five-eighth with the injury to Cole.
Not sure what Ivan will do. Though judging by Nathan at the game last week watching pre game drills, I would be surprised if you donāt see him in the extended bench tomorrow.
How about Turuva to FB, McClean comes in at wing (or keep him centre and push Alamoti out) ?
Does anyone know how Nathanās shoulder truly is ? He might appear on the extended bench to suggest heās āreally close to returningā but give him the extra week.
That could work, but I would fee more confident with Laurie a FB rather than Turuva.
The problem is that both NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg have made the finals and pushing somebody up means another gap to fill further down the line.
Not too sure how close Nathan is to be honest, he looked good at the ground but he wasnāt passing the ball around so itās hard to gauge. You would imagine he would like to get a game under his belt before Week 1 of the finals. So I imagine if he is fit enough he would play.
Hereās an out of the box suggestion - if Edwards needs a rest and Nath needs game time, why not play Nathan at fullback - less tackling to make so less risk to his shoulder?
ha haaa good one SHF, that would certainly blow out the lungs, not sure of his impact though, he is great over 20 but running for 200m a game might test the resolve.
If he is ready and we are just looking for game time, make him defend on the wing, he is far too good at 7 from an attack POV to be moving him to 1 IMO.
It wasnāt pretty, but we got the job done. Our attack still doesnāt look good, but should improve with Cleary back. For the fifth year in a row we are the best defensive side, as the saying goes - defence wins premierships.
Looking at the ladder & draw, I can all but guarantee we are playing Friday next week.
There is a minimum 6 day turnaround for finals meaning Sharks, Manly, Dolphins & Knights canāt play Friday. The only way any of them will play against each other is if the Sharks lose by 134 or more.
The Sharks would have to win by 73 or more to overtake the Roosters on for & against. Also highly unlikely.
This means 3 games canāt be played Friday night, leaving Panthers v Roosters as the only possible option.
Well, would have liked to have a better performance going into the finals, but a win was what was required & that was achieved. The occasion maybe got to us a little - final game at āhomeā, old boys day & Fishās 200th & Luai & Titoās last.
I suggest we were guilty of looking too far ahead & maybe being almost worried about losing to, letās face facts a team that could well have been in a 3 or 4 way spoonbowl, & thus impacted our display. Same as against Raiders, let the opposition stay in the contest & always the chance to get rundown late.
The night was truly a memorable event, congrats to the club for the arrangements & to the crowd who turned out to celebrate our club.
Move to next week, seems like Fri night as Mutley wrote above. A whole new competition begins & you need to win 3 games to get the trophy.
While it was a night to remember (kudos to the Panthers organisation for a memorable send off for the stadium) it certainly wonāt be a match to remember. It was very Un-Penrith like, a lot of silly errors, and building up large amounts of attacking pressure only have a poor last tackle option and hitting the relief valve.
I lost count of the times Luai was trapped with the ball on the last leaving Schnieder to put in a average kick of which the Titans recovered easily.
As much as I like Schneider in defence, his attack is poor at times and it shows. I doubt he will be considered for the 6 slot next year.
Out of curiosity I looked up how many games Nathan has played this year, which ended up being 10 games, just one more game than Andrew Johns played in the 1997 ARL seaon where a Leo Dynevor filled in at halfback for the majority of the regular season. The Knights finished second that year to Minor Premiers Manly. The would end up playing each other in the Grand Final with the Knights the victor.
Hopeful thinking but I do hope this is a bit of history repeating.
Agree with the Schneider chat from Sat night, he was passing way to early as well, itās one thing to keep dropping the ball back under, but the defense needs to be wary of the run possibility, many times Marto was cannon fodder for the defense.
How many high shots did Turuva take before he got a penalty, I again though the refereeing was sub par. The only saving grace for him was our performance wasnāt that great either and his judgement calls may have been validā¦
Anyway, bring on the chooks, get another week off and then RIP IN !!
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