Congrats to both our halves Cleary and Maloney being named in the 2nd SOO squad but gees there have been plenty of changes and to be honest Fittler has made more then i had even contemplated which suggests he is panicked or his choices for game 1 were wrong
There are 3 injured from Game 1…Klemmer,Haas and Cotric but Fittler has dropped Mitchell and Walker which are perhaps the 2 who have really surprised me
But congrats again to Maloney and Cleary
maybe he wasn’t happen with the choir 
The other one dropped was Morris. He started well, but then just started racing in in defence taking no-one & was not sighted with the ball in 2nd half. I was not surprised he was dropped. Our defence down both sides was appalling at times, and only poor finishing from the toads kept the game close.
Fittler could have taken the safer option & stuck solid, but he wants to win, and safe options are not his style
The issue is Fittler’s ‘guise’ in camp. Don’t bring your baggage and it seemed to me that most of the group who were dropped had baggage. SOO is a different beast, until Freddy gets that instilled into the group we will continue to struggle.
well … a significant 2nd half absence paved the way for NSW’s
Maloney (Fittler’s 3rd choice) to run the show single handedly,
and didn’t he/they deliver ! Hope Cleary was watching, closely.
IC was in the sheds after the game so he should have an even greater insight into the Panther woes…
NC injury could be a blessing in disguise 
an injury to one of our players is never a blessing in disguise or otherwise but i agree Nathan could learn from Maloney in how he ran the game…but suspect he isn’t learning much other than from his Dad.
Maloney despite his known failings with penalties and poor defensive reads still has enough in attack to forgive those glaring faults with him.
Indeed he nearly got suckered in late in the game when he thought he was hiding on the wing but the Maroons saw him but much to my surprise and i guess he looked upwards and said thanks they ran infield away from him.
Despite this he had a great game, rugged, persistent and able to rally the troops where he needed them.
IF i was IC i would remove the C from Tamou…give it to Maloney whilst NC recovers and now he cana move Luai to 5/8th with Maloney at 7
I feel for NC because he was right in the game last night and his defence was great but not sure if he has lost a yard of acceleration but he just doesn’t trust himself or back himself to try something
I hope his injury isn’t too bad but takes the opportunity to learn and rehabilitate his body as if we can maintain wins, we could be there at the finals.
A faint but real hope.
acceleration ???
Maloneys lip possesses more zip !
With all due respect SBF there is no way NC Dad is going to take action from His poor performing son, hence the ‘blessing’ quote. For what it’s worth he has a sore leg, not an injury that puts fear into his career prospects.
Anyway we will see what the Panthers can do in his absence.
Q. What if we play great footy between now and his return, would you pick NC straight back into 7 regardless?
Blake was performing ‘poorly’ and look what happened to him.
Cleary is over rated round these parts. There I said it ! 
To be honest i do expect us to play differently with Maloney at 7 (if indeed he is still with us after June 30)
and i would bring NC straight back into the side if and when he is fit because he is our 7…indeed he is the NSW #7 so others have a much higher opinion of him.
I don’t like the fact his Dad is our coach but that is something i can’t change because i don’t see his Dad bringing the best out of him.
I argued when Gould was with us he needed to go to Melbourne and learn his craft under a great coach.
Its something which has always irked me about coaches and coaching and Panthers…we always seem to get someone who is not top shelf.
Look at the rubbish we have had over the years…and i don’t see any quality players wanting to come to Panthers…does anyone?
Thats a whole other subject i guess.
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