Last night probably didn't tell us anything we don't already know. Penrith are bloody good but are beatable.
Whoever plays them next week simply must be disciplined. Zero dropped ball zero penalty. There are two game plans you can use to beat them.
Game plan one has to be hit up, get the 5th and kick, defend for 5, rinse and repeat. They don't do anything overly fancy or steamroll through you, they just wait for your error then pounce. Give them a sniff and they'll punish you. This game plan requires your middles to work there asses off!! Penriths discipline is so good you can't rely on errors or penalties so your big men need to lock horns and win the middle. You want to be kicking from the half way line at least at the end of your sets. If you do this well enough you play the game in their end and hopefully crack them.
The second game plan and this is the risky one, is launch all out attack. Play off the cuff footy with offloads and spreading the ball early, pulling the trigger when you can. The risk here however is you dont get it right and you invite them onto the attack and its goodnight. The reward however is you score points and make them have take their own risks to score points. Make them change the plan of just waiting for an opposition error and have to chase the game.
From a defensive perspective every one of their players who hits the ball up seems to make meters. Again you need your middles to have good line speed, get numbers in the tackle and put them on the back foot. Being a grand final you hope the ref puts the whistle away. It he starts blowing 6 agains and penalties in the first 15 mins you need to adjust your line speed and give up a few extra meters rather then a penalty. Need to be adaptive to how the refs want to control the game on the night.
The final key to beating them for shit sake is make Cleary work in Defence. Made 12 tackles all night! Basically that means every time panthers have the ball, instead of sucking in the big ones out the back he's touching the ball 3-4 times a set and barking orders. Fatigue impacts your kicking, passing, running and just how you react to situations. Yes they train for it but if the best half in the game is only making 12 tackles he's getting a free pass.
