It was hard to watch Melbourne win that one last night (partly because I despise them with every fabric of my soul) but especially because it took me back to 2001 and watching our beloved Eels get destroyed. Let me draw a couple of comparisons...
- The strongest team all year filled with young skillful stars make the grand final after a record-breaking season.
- The strongest team with all the pressure gets absolutely dominated in the first of the GF and really lost any chance to make a comeback in the second.
- They came back in the second to only lose by 6pts, but honestly were never in the contest till the last 10mins.
I'm hoping the narrative will start to change and give the Panthers the chokers tag so we'll stop hearing about the Eels being the only team to lose a Grand Final in one half of footy.
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It's a very good comparison.
I was ambivalent about the result but I didn't enjoy the game. It was typical Melbourne. They get a few dodgy calls, the Panthers didn't do much wrong and before you know it, it's 10-0.
Happy for Ryan winning the Clive Churchill. Thoroughly deserved.
The NRL continues to choke on a diet of Roosters and Storm. It's beyond dull.
"The NRL continues to choke on a diet of Roosters and Storm. It's beyond dull."
This is an amazing line that summarises the last decade of NRL
So true...
100% correct. Felt this the whole night through. Always worried how the kids from Penrith would handle adversity and being strangled and suffocated by melbourne as they know how to better than any team in modern era. It is a fine line playing melbourne as we have found out more than once. Genius or Dud in blink of an eye, pass, ref call or misread. They roll on , others blink and then 6 turns into 16 and then they start their tactics and rinse and repeat what has worked wonders for 10 years. Own the ruck, rely on more than 50/50 calls and build pressure by field position and speed . Hate them witha passion because they are so bloody good each and every year.
Also be off side so often (leaving early) that the ref just gives up and lets them get away with it.
Yes similar, but Parra scored a heap of points all season and we had Taylor / Buettner who had experience, and to me we got done inside the head. Johns to me had more impact than Smith; but Melbourne play a vastly different style; but yes v similar. Melbourne had 2 guys binned too for the last 10 mins!
I was a little happy for Tigers fans who lets face it got dudded by coach Cleary with players he had at Wests and then left the bus for a younger upgrade.
Agree on that difference, we were torn apart single handedly by the GOAT (and Kennedy), as opposed to the Storm team tearing the Panthers apart,
Cleary has underperformed at origin level as well he is young but he is showing a bit of Mitchell Pearce vibes in big games
Cleary wasn't really that bad. He was quiet and threw one bad, but crucial pass. Kikau was horrendous and was solely responsible for the 1st half. Mansour and May also played a big part in losing over Cleary imo..
Agree, it doesn't.
But he wasn't the sole reason they lost either.
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