Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has updated his squad for Friday nightâs sold-out Battle of the West against Parramatta Eels at BlueBet Stadium.
Cleary has confirmed that representative winger Brian Toâo and prop Moses Leota will play in the Round 9 match, while Mitch Kenny has been named on the bench.
I like it, we are getting serious again !
Panthers forward Scott Sorensen has been ruled out of tonightâs match against Parramatta Eels due to a non-COVID illness.
Prop Matt Eisenhuth will take his place, returning to the line-up on the interchange bench for the Battle of the West.
This doesnât make me as uncomfortable as it would have a month ago 
So while both Toâo and Leota have been named, he is holding his cards close on Toâoâs inclusion and who drops out.
I think May will move to 18th man
Charlie Staines is lining up at fullback for NSW Cup today, so I assume that Toâo will be filling in on that side of the wing.
If I live to be a hundred I may begin to understand âObstructionâ.
That would have to be 2 of the most bizarre bunker rulings of all time. Letâs hope they donât decide the game.
Bunker trying hard to keep the eels in the game.
Knock On Effect NSW Cup| Full Time |
Penrith Panthers | 25 |
Tries Robert Jennings (2), Thomas Jenkins, Eddie Blacker. Goals Kurt Falls (4/4) Field Goal Sean OâSullivan (1) |
 |
Parramatta Eels | 8 |
Tries Sean Russell, Jayden Yates. Goals Jordan Rankin (0/2) |
Jersey Flegg Cup| Full Time |
Penrith Panthers | 40 |
Tries Isaiah Iongi (2), Cody Lawson (2), Mavrik Geyer, Daeon Amituanai, Niwhai Puru. Goals Niwhai Puru (6/7) |
|
Parramatta Eels | 32 |
Tries Dantoray Lui (2), Turoa Williams, Larry Muagututia, Corey Fenning, Ethan Sanders. Goals Corey Fenning (4/6) |
Unfortunately those 2 questionable decisions did cost us the game.
In saying that, we were well off our best tonight, especially in attack.
last week I was amongst those labelled âhard markerâ.
Alas! the writing was on the wall.
This week, disappointing ! 
had to take time to frame my comments on last night and to reflect on the gameâŚ
There is a lot to unpack from last night for me so here we do.
Is Cleary still injured?
I noted he was on the wing a few times and some of his defence and missed efforts in defence were not in anyway the standard we have come to expect from him. Add to this his missed goals and i would argue a poor general kick game.
its clear Leota and Too needed the run and will be better for last nights run
May continues to grow in his role yet Tago has stalled imo
Luai again looks passive
JFH had a quiet game.
Lenui was largely ineffective
Did we miss Sorenson?
What is it with dumb forwards or any player really when you your âintentâ is to run through a hole yet collect a player on his outside shoulder nullifying a try?
what is it with a player grabbing a defender before he gets the ball, the mistake more amplified when it is on your try line?
what is it with allowing a bomb to hit the ground before anyone collects it?
What is it with players getting involved in and responding to niggle from the other mob?
We had a few moments last night which were pivotalâŚlike when Kikau was injured and we left a huge hole on the wing for Parra to score.
When Cleary ran out of our line and left a huge hole for them to run through
when we allowed the ball to bounce and Parr score.
the dumb penalty try by Salmon
the dumb disallowed try by Martin
These were âkeyâ poor decision moments by us and imo allowed them into the game.
As an overview Parra cannot play any better and we can play a lot better.
A lot of us can say this was coming and some will even argue this maybe a good loss.
I am not one who thinks any loss is a good loss and this game moreso because we had almost everything in our favour.
Home game, home crowd, all but 1 of our top 17 available to play and perfect conditions.
Dumb mistakes cost us last night, notwithstanding the Eels were lucky to have 14 players on the field at all times and the ref calls were not only mystifying but biased in my opinion.
If Cleary had even kicked all goals we still would have won notwithstanding our dumb brain fades.
so we lost but we were not belted and or blown off the park.
what are the take aways from this game.
May continues to grow
Yeo is an enormous presence on the field
We can as a group improve and have to
The loss is hard to take especially given the game turned on key moments which we could have controlled and in my preview i touched on we had to focus on what we control and we needed to execute at the highest level.
Its clear we didnât and its not we had fundamentals wrong, its clear we didnât execute how we should have in key effort areas.
Hope Cleary is not masking a bigger issue, Leota and Too pull up well after the game.
Next week provides supporters with another game to see where we are at as a Team.
I dont think the refereeing was biased at all, it was just bad. Going the other way, there was the most obvious Kikau knock on you have ever seen that was somehow missed.
In saying that, there is a hill Iâm prepared to die on so to speak lol. For Mayâs second try, as Cleary moves forward to kick the conversion, the Eels trainer runs across the Goal Posts. I pointed it out live, but considering all of the manufactured controversy about trainers effecting games last year, i wonder if that will get picked up by the media. (doubt it)
We went away from the game plan a little too. We got so comfortable rolling up the middle, we seemed to stop spreading the ball until the last 5 mins once we were aiming for that comeback. We also started doing one-out hit ups at one stage which i feel like i havenât seen us do in years.
Will be interesting to see how the boys respond in Magic Round.
agree on the Kikau knock on but still believe the ref had a bias IMO
What about six agains, what about when Mahony appeared to pull of Luaiâs hair?
I could go on but felt the ref looked for any opportunity to ping us yet blindly allowed them to offend.
On the trainer, i think Cleary has bigger issues than worrying about a trainer. Agree in principle âanyâ movement in the line of sight of a kicker by anyone should be a penalty but hey when was the last time you saw a ball rolled into the scrum where it should go?
we could go on about âinterpretationsâ by refs and or the bunker for days, but we need to perform to take this ânoiseâ out of affecting the outcome.
Perhaps we let the noise get in last night.
Is Cleary still injured ? Good question Steamboat.
Kicking/Defence/Attack, a poor game in his standards!
you talking about the penalty try? The way I saw it Jaemon didnât grab him, more that he still had hold of him from tackling him in the first time. Is there a rule of how long you can hold a player you are tackling 
I was pleased to see that neither Klein nor Cummins were refereeing, but now I see that Klein was the video ref - so that explains plenty. Those two should never be let anywhere near a Penrith game.
Salmon was a fraction early hitting Mahoney. Whether that stopped Mahoney from scoring is debatable. Probably a penalty at worst.
Panther Pride Man of the Match voting is now open 
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