Are the Panthers still contenders in 2017?

[Harry Sack]

I honestly still cannot believe they got rid of Cleary for Anthony Fucking Griffin. The guy is a coaching potato. It blows my mind.

Cleary would have questioned Gus too much for his liking imo.

 

[cakeGG]

Gus and their moronic fans are obsessed with us it's pathetic. He went to us for advice to learn how to run Penriff financially. Then he gets rid of Cleary for Griffin (lol). Then u got the idiot fans trying to compare Moylan to Lockyer.

This is their last chance. They have the wood on us lately. If they lose on Thursday, it's over.

 

[Renegade]

the Panthers are a trash average team with a couple of above average players, that's the long and short of it.

when you think about it, they are exactly like we were when Griffin was coach, all youth and potential but not many with serious runs on the board.

they have too many "samey" players. a captain who doesn't know if he wants to be captain. their hopes resting on a 19 and 21 yo halves pairing, combined 35 games experience with what, 5 together?

tamou is actually a signing that encapsulates the panthers perfectly, terrific when on form and up for it, absolute overrated plodder(s) when they're not.

 

[mitch222]

Penrith will be like the Tigers. Have all these young juniors coming through but when they come off contract, they will leave for bigger clubs

 

[Foordy]

I never thought they were ever premiership contenders ... TOP 8 contenders sure, but not premiership contenders

 

[theshed]

No. the panthers can't realistically afford to lose 2 more games this season without saying goodbye to their premeriship hopes. At least in any reasonable statistical possibility.

I am not very confident of us beating them. Rocks and diamonds arsey teams are our biggest undoing. But I don't think they will make any significant play for championship. There will be a logger head around 7-10 and they may sneak into the 8 but by that stage of the year it will be a crapshoot.

 

[Alec]

Penrith will be like the Tigers. Have all these young juniors coming through but when they come off contract, they will leave for bigger clubs

That's pretty depressing. There's pretty much almost no point in developing juniors when Roosters or Bulldogs end up stealing them. They gotta do something about that, seriously.

 

[Big Pete]

If I was a Panthers supporter, I would be fed up with the club. With the draw they had, they should be well and truly entrenched in the Top 4. Instead they find themselves in the bottom and I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel, at least not in regards to 2017.

The question has to be asked, what went wrong.

From my vantage point, I can't look past their Round 5 loss against Melbourne. The Panthers were hot coming off their win against Newcastle, it seemed like they had put Round 1 behind them only to come crashing down to earth against Melbourne. They looked like a deer in the headlights that evening and instead of taking their licks and improving their game for their fanbase, they were too busy looking to party. Now I could understand it if they were a couple of young guys and they're just trying to live it up, but when you're the captain and in such a delicate position career wise like Matty Moylan it does my head in.

Is there a dumber player in the competition than Matt Moylan? Is he aware of where he's at career wise and the profile the club is trying to give him by making him captain? Here he is, receiving plaudits by all and sundry and instead of doing his absolute best to ensure he's right on the field he's setting a bad example both on and off the field.

Compare him to Darius Boyd.

Now there was a time in Darius' career where he was going the way of Matty Moylan. Where after being hailed as a Top 10 player, Boyd went into his shell and just chimed in on his second man play. Whenever he was called onto do more like ruck it up, he'd pass the buck onto whoever was beside him whether it was a Morris, Nightingale, Uate or McManus. However, when he was in the frame for the Broncos captaincy, Boyd started running with vigor and if you watch a lot of games last season in particular you'll notice all these little plays that don't seem like much but in the grand scheme of things made a huge difference.

Moylan isn't doing that. In fact, he's struggling to position himself correctly and only comes into the game when his team mates allow him to come into the game. A few weeks, maybe a few months ago, I had him in the NSW Origin side more or less because it seemed like the NSWRL wanted to find a way to get him into the side and he wasn't Pearce and Reynolds isn't much chop at all. As it stands, my thoughts haven't changed on those other players but my thoughts on Moylan have altered drastically. If he doesn't pick his game up soon, it won't be long until he finds himself back in the NSW Cup and that would be an absolute crying shame.

The most troubling aspect about Moylan's form is that when he was dropped to the NSW Cup, he couldn't inspire the boys down there. In fact, they lost to competition straggler's Newcastle who were one of the worst units in NSW Cup history last season. If that doesn't tell you how far he's fallen I don't know what else will.

To be fair, he's in good company as well. Campbell-Gillard, Watene-Zelezniak, Hiku, Latu, Merrin...they're a joke at the moment and I think Gus needs to start tapping people on the shoulder if he wants to get results.

This current vein of form really puts last season into perspective. Last year, the Rugby League press was tripping over themselves trying to pat Griffin on the back for moving Soward & Segeyaro on and giving Cartwright and Cleary a shot in the halves. While their run into the finals was quite impressive, the press got a little too over enthusiastic using it as a predicator for success. Looking back, it wasn't like they were playing against the best opposition, a lot of teams had either checked out or were simply down on troops. Now that everyone is motivated, Penrith have been exposed and they maybe one of the biggest pretenders to come into a season. It's like the Parramatta Eels of the 00s or the Warriors who are a whole other kettle of fish.

Expectations for the rest of the season: Hook to be shown the door, the Panthers to start playing well now that they got their way and in the end the Panthers won't be any closer to a premiership than they were when they had Elliott as their coach.

 

[ningnangnong]

@Big Pete > every rugby league journalist out there

 

[ZTop]

Only just realised Penriff are back in the 8, which raises the questions again
Are Penriff contenders this year?

 

[Browny]

Nah they'll get caught out when there arsey comebacks won't work

 

[Super Freak]

They couldn't beat a Thurstonless Cowboys.

They are pretenders.

 

[JayPee]

I have a big problem with how they attack in the 20m. They have no problems making metres with the forward pack or the big outside backs. Mansour is so important to them. But as soon as they get to the 20m they have no set plays or decoy sweeping plays to breakdown the defences these days.

They have no problem chucking it around like a hot potato before then and I actually think we are starting to see footy move a bit more towards the "off the cuff" style but you have still got to be able to put on a set play deep in attack. Passing across the line flat is just too easy to defend. It comes down to coaching. Also this fascination they have with running the ball just about every single last tackle attacking the line. That is fine if it is on but alot of the time it isn't. And to make it worse they have one of the better kicks in the comp with Cleary. I don't get it. And I'm not even sure it is all Griffins's doing. I have heard that Gould has massive pull on the way they attack. He hates structure. Only have to listen to his commentary.

When you look at their draw they should make the finals on talent alone. It is not hard at all. But first week of the finals they will more than likely get knocked out by a better coached, well structured team.

 

[Renegade]

My comment at the top of the page still stands.