The Panthers have rightfully been credited with one of their best displays in recent years in blowing us off the park last week. But with the luxury of some time off workÂ
I checked the replay…
The first 17 minutes were blow for blow. Then Georgie came on to replace Perry. Straight away Pritchard charged through the middle to set up the try that kicked them into the lead. George was making his way back from the previous tackle and there was a hole in the middle that King couldn’t plug by himself. (Something similar happened against Souths the previous week when George was left standing by Luke within seconds of taking the field.)Â
8 minutes later an inside pass to Jennings, who zooms through a gap because someone is a bit slow trailing across – it’s George! And we are down 16-6.
Gorgeous George is immediately hooked by Des even though he has only been on the field for 10 min, and Perry comes back without the benefit of his usual breather.
From the kickoff a couple of sets see Panthers trundling downfield, a questionable penalty (Choc!) and 2 more points to Panthers.
From that kickoff Perry is involved in 3 of the first 4 tackles. But on his 3rd one he can’t prevent Gordon unloading - and the try of the year results.
Brilliant play by Penrith, and I don’t doubt it was one of the best displays by any team all year. But we were down 24-6 at that stage, and for rest of the game each team scored another 16 (which included their intercept).
So to keep a little perspective (even though I really love all the doomsayer posts!!) yes we are in a bit of a slump but we have been hard hit by injuries and it is SOO time of year so what would anyone expect? Overall I don’t think we are looking too bad, just my opinion of course.Â
And there is one player in our squad who has heaps of improvement in him: Big Georgie. His injury set his fitness back a long way. But as he slowly gains peak fitness we know how damaging he can be. ;D