Total humiliation and schooled in every facet of the game tonight.
I was hoping after last week that there was some work put into the team doing the 101 basics of the game.
The first 20 minutes was a total train wreck, littered with handling errors, not dealing with attacking kicks and then getting shredded on the fringes of our ruck. 22-0 in as many minutes made it game over for us and they simply toyed with us for most of the night.
The 15 minutes before half time was somewhat of an improvement and a good try to Cust was a reward for staying alert. It was the only joy of the night for us with the ball.
We look all at sea with and without the ball right now. Our attack is really limited. We are getting so little from our 9 that our halves are under enormous pressure every time they handle the ball and are rushed and forced into errors.
What stood out for me tonight was the speed of the Panthers and their post contact metres. Our defenders were rag dolled far too often!
The truth is that Penrith were about 80 percent on their game and that saved us from total annihilation.
As I said last week this is likely to get worse before it improves.
Surely now after four games, the folly of playing guys out of position MUST STOP!!! Time and time again these guys are exposed and it is hindering our game so much.
I have said it over and over about the total folly of not having a recognized 9 in our team, its our greatest weakness and you have to really question the recruitment when they knew 15 months ago that Fainu was a long term out for the side.
There has to be changes now, time to shed the passengers and get in some new committed blood. We have to do this now as the season is obviously gone after only 4 rounds.
In the 20 games left we MUST allow the likes of Keppie, Schuster and Paseka to become the guys running the team and guys like DCE and Foran need to help out with their experience.
I think we need to totally rethink our tactics with the ball, we are benign, we offer hardly anything in attack and we dont look like scoring from kicks.
Without the ball we get outflanked, out muscled and we concede points on the back of turn overs regulary.
There is something horribly wrong at moment and the coach has to be put on notice especially with his sheer utter refusal to make changes and put players in their rightful positions.
Its been an embarrassing month of football, In my 45 years of watching ive not seen it this dire!!
No more excuses the hard yards need to be done now, we are slow, undisciplined and totally out of touch of our rivals.
This has to change!!
