Poor first half. We looked like our own worst enemy out there.
Many lost opportunities on the line, threw a few intercepts, conceded a try 13 on 12.
Need to tighten it all up. Very Un-Penrith like.
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That was dreadful. Our front rowers were ill disciplined, couldnāt hold the ball and werenāt going forward. I thought Moses looked better this week but didnāt play many minutes. We are definitely missing a second quality prop. I would have thought there would have been a bit more effort for Yeo this week.
Without the forwards going forward, it makes it hard for the backs to do their thing.
Congratulations Isaah Yeo for 250 games for the Panthers. Not one bad game.
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Terrible.
Too many errors. (16)
Gave away too many penalties. (6)
Too many missed tackles. (43)
Awful completion rate. (70%)
3 players on report.
Conceded a try with the opposition a man down.
McLean bombing a certain try to win the game.
The way we are going, I canāt see us beating anybody in the league.
Iām going to bed.
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Very ordinary.
Compounding errors with dumb penalties, giving the opposition easy field position, then letting in easy tries.
We need to take a good hard look at ourselves.
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The ref was a clown but thatās not the reason for our loss - equally bad for both teams.
By god I hope we have Edwards or anyone else at fullback instead of Laurie - he is making Peachey look like Mr consistent. I never want to see him in first grade again.
I thought Milky and Paul did ok in our 3/4ās, as for the other two, well I wonāt bother writing their name out.
Our halves did ok, even Schneider played a good role at hooker.
I canāt fault Yeo or Kenny - both have 100% as usual.
I donāt see this tactic of playing Papaliāi at prop and putting Smith on the bench as providing any benefit. He just doesnāt have enough grunt for front the middle in my eyes.
As for our edges, Martin seemed asleep except for short spells, and Garner all but non existent.
Moses went ok, but it was only him and Yeo in the middle that seemed to make any impact.
While I saw glimpses of good attack, once again our defence stayed at home. What happened to our attacking with defence? Pinning teams down in there own 30, and waiting for fatigue to kick in. On leaving the crowd someone commented it has been like watching the 2003 panthers rather than the 2023 panthers.
At least the trains ran on time, and I managed to get a good seat - wasnāt hard with what a 6000 crowd?
Our season is far from over, be we need to bring back our team spirit, and attitude to games. Cut out the silly penalties, hold the ball, trust our system (and execute it).
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Panther Pride Man of the Match voting is now open Iām struggling to understand the Tago sin bin a full set of six later - I donāt know, maybe this is a rule I donāt know of but I donāt like it. If it takes the officiating staff a full set of 6 to figure out itās an illegal play, too bad you havenāt caught it in time. My 2c.
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I actually thought Liam Martin had a great game. Every run was powerful, and he did so much of the shit clean up work around Cleary.
I donāt know what more he could have done.
2 tries from poor discipline. Penrith knock on 10m out. Penalty cows on tackle one. Six again mid way through the set, finished with a try.
Just why be offside for a scrum 10m out. What do you gain from that?
Am I crazy or does this feel worse than 2019
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Our current form is undeniably concerning. A single win from five games is a worrying trend, and the looming State of Origin period threatens to derail any potential recovery. Even if the team manages to turn things around in the coming weeks, the loss of key players during Origin will likely result in further defeats, significantly jeopardising their chances of securing a top-four finish.
Adding to the unease was Ivanās press conference last night. His struggle to articulate the teamās issues and potential solutions was unsettling. I felt he was trying hard not to say that he didnāt know what the problem was and how to fix it. We all know what happened last time he said that. But, in Ivan we trust and I am sure (hope) he has a plan.
Individually, some players need to step up. Garner, in particular, has failed to live up to expectations since joining the team. Conversely, while Henry may be young and prone to errors, his energy provides a spark that is currently lacking. Papaliāiās limited game time and underwhelming performances are also raising questions about his value to the team.
As for the young backs who seem to be copping it on social media etc, they are young and will come around but probably need some more time in reserve grade to master their positions before playing in the NRL.
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Iām looking foward to round 11. Hopefully we can get the 2 points.
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I pretty well agree with all the commentary here, bad as things are. At the moment, Iād suggest that defending our premiership will be a tad difficult if we miss the 8, and that is our current trajectory. It sure feels like many of the bad old days, when any victory was something to treasure, as was missing the wooden spoon.
Every week we hear how the team and staff will have a good, hard look at those aspects that need rectification, and then how well training went. Then the wall-to-wall rank stupidity takes place, and we realise that we have been delusional. Three dropped balls on their try line in the first 10 or 15 minutes typifies the dismal execution of play. And it remains to be explained how our defence can drop from the best in the NRL over 4 or 5 years to about the worst. Truly inexplicable.
The only positive that I can draw is that, despite playing brain dead for much of the match, we would still have won were it not for McLeanās brain explosion that butchered the late try. Also, curiously we would have won or drawn both this match of the Melbourne one when the match-saving tries missed by inches.
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I think that fatigue is playing a factor. The longer season (playing the most games of any club each season for the past 4 years) extended rep duties, shorter pre-seasons, interrupted pre-seasons.
Then on top of that you have the talent we have had to let go to remain under the cap. While last year we shed the lowest amount of players in our premiership run, the losses probably have been the most significant (mostly regarding Luai and JFH)
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOSSES | ||||
| James Tamou | Tevita Pangai Junior | Christian Crichton | Stephen Crichton | Isaiah Iongi |
| Jack Hetherington | Matt Burton | Jāmaine Hopgood | Jaeman Salmon | Sunia Turuva |
| Caleb Aekins | Brent Naden | Robert Jennings | Spencer Leniu | James Fisher-Harris |
| Zane Tetevano | Kurt Capewell | Isaiya Katoa | Jack Cogger | Jerome Luai |
| Malakai Watene-Zelezniak | Paul Momirovski | Viliame Kikau | Tom Jenkins | |
| Josh Mansour | Tyrone May | Api Koroisau | Zac Hosking | |
| Daine Laurie | Sean OāSullivan | Kurt Falls | ||
| Dean Whare | Charlie Staines | Eddie Blacker | ||
| Billy Burns | Chris Smith | |||
| Ativalu Lisati | ||||
| Taylan May | ||||
| GAINS | ||||
| Robert Jennings | Christian Crichton | Luke Garner | Paul Alamoti | Blaize Talagi |
| Matt Eisenhuth | Chris Smith | Zac Hosking | Daine Laurie | Asu Kepaoa |
| Jaeman Salmon | Sean OāSullivan | Tyrone Peachey | Riley Price | Isaiah Papaliāi |
| Scott Sorensen | Soni Luke | Brad Schneider | Tom Jenkins | |
| Paul Momirovski | ||||
| Eddie Blacker |
I think this probably is going to be the most challenging, the saying goes āa rising tide lifts all shipsā and the salary cap has does itās jobā¦ a lot of teams have lifted this season, and this season make not the cake walk some previous seasons have seemed.
Will we win a fifth premiership? Maybe, maybe not. I think itās still too early to tell. But we need to put this poor start behind us, and get back to what works.
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My concern is the way our team has played very ordinary teams into form. Roosters, Rabbitohs and Cowboys were struggling until we played them. Makes next weekās match with the lowy Dolphins (who are now above us on the table) a worry.
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Anything is still possible, although the way that things are going, we may have to do it from the bottom half of the 8, which wonāt be easy.
Perhaps another NRL record. 
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I donāt know whatās wrong, but it looks like everything is off.
In no particular order:
- Discipline in general is way down.
- Everyone seems off and disjointed
- Tago needs a spell or something. In prior seasons his rushing-up defence was somewhat offset by our rock solid defence. This year itās no where near as solid and not doing us any favours.
- We seem to lack the punch forward and everyone is getting fatigued more. Probably linked to lack of dominant possession and discipline
- Something about Cole and Mcleans donāt look ready for first grade or at least the Panthers way (physicality wise). Iām confused about whether I think Cole is the right #6. Maybe give Talagi a shot at #6 and Cole at #14. Laurie can go.
- Laurieā¦ I thought Peach was bad enough in the rocks & diamond bucketā¦
- Edwards: Star player, but Iām worried our defence is too impotent and whilst I expect more from our defence once heās back, he wonāt fix it entirely
- Hope Kenny aint out for long
- Please give Talagi a go and not Schneider at 6.
- Probably missed Toāo and Edwards starting sets strongly
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In 2019 it took until about half way through the season before Ivan finally realised he had to give some of the kids a good crack at first grade. I would like to see Talagi starting, and Luron Patea on the bench. Even though cup didnt get the result, it seemed like he was barking instructions and leading the side around the field.
He took it upon himself to try and get the side back into the game with strong carries, and even a few steals of his own.
I canāt see him being left out of the team for too much longer.
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Horrible - Our forwards need to have a long hard look at themselves. Does Smith think heās a halfbackā¦what is with the stepping and shit, run straight and hard and catch the friggen ball !!
Papalli, so far heās proving me WRONG, I thought he would be the buy of the season, other clubs are laughing at usā¦he has 0 impact.
Iām pissed off at the refereeing, they were not the reason for us, we were really bad, but it doesnāt help when the ball has been in play for 10 minutes without a break, this has been our game plan for years now, they kick it dead, we run to the 20 for a 7 tackle set and are held up by the ref listening to the bunker about something that happened 2 sets beforeā¦at least 30 seconds of the Cows getting their breath back for someone to go on report - WTF
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As I had been away for a couple of rounds & saw little of the games in Rd4, Iāve waited until seeing all the games this week before commenting.
In general, the standard of NRL is meeting the NRLās plan to bring all the teams down to lowest common denominator. The games are of a poor playing standard, but they are happy it seems as they want all teams to remain in the hunt for the 8 as long as possible as that will keep the fans interested longer. They clearly have sought the game officials assistance in lowering the standard as low as possible.
BOT ie this weeks game. It is clear that we are making too many errors, poor decisons & just missing too many tackles. Easy to say, but not so easy to fix.
I fear our poor execution is causing us to lose our fear factor of the past 5 seasons, giving other teams more confidence in beating us. Part of our game was that the opposition were always under pressure, āknowingā that they are going to struggle to score & causing them to make mistakes, which puts even more pressure on them. We are now making the mistakes, putting the pressure on ourselves.
The display on Fri night was ordinary to say the least, but I didnāt see anyone not trying. Perhaps trying too much was the problem. Itās often been pointed out that players sometime try and solve a problem that didnāt really exist until they did try to fix something that wasnāt there, which then created a problem. Also, players try to make up for others by doing something that is not their job.
As bad as the situation looks, if Tago didnāt have his brain fart on that poor cows kick, and Casey had passed the ball, we would be 2-3 & the situation would be looking a lot brighter. We are paying well below our best, and are still finding ways to āalmostā win.
I have learnt do not second guess IC, but I didnāt understand Papalii starting for Smith nor our 3/4 line, but we have a couple of troops key to our success coming back this week, albeit with a couple more out.
Onwards and upwards. As has been said by others, if we are in the finals itās a whole new ball game - we just need to win enough games to be there.
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