“He just killed us," Moses shrugged. Killer sidesteps, jimmies, double pumps and sideline conversions. 40/20 daggers. Nathan Cleary, the ice-cold assassin. He didn’t just lead — he sliced through like a surgeon with ice in his veins.
Panthers coach, Ivan Cleary, couldn't help but smile: “He's made my life easier over the years.”
Image (Getty): Cleary led with a masterclass. He had the ball on a string, kicked 3/3, made 18 runs for 125m, a 40/20, a linebreak, 3 tackle busts to have the defence double guessing. It helps they have five Origin stars in their ranks, too.
"We didn’t play just any ordinary team," lamented Eels' coach Jason Ryles in the round 13 pressor yesterday following the Eels' heartbreaking 18-10 loss to the Panthers.
"We had fully loaded four-time premiers today [full-strength], and they’re desperate."
“They had to complete at 90 [percent] and they had to play well to one, stay with us and two, then beat us in the end."
Ryles: "Self-Inflicted"
“It’s disappointing, but we self-inflicted a lot of that onto ourselves,”
“Just with little moments of yardage penalties and errors on play one when we’ve got the ball back and we worked so hard to get it and then we missed a few opportunities with the footy as well, just with our execution."
Moments That Hurt
Image (Getty): Williams busts the line and makes a long run - not for the first time this year. Where was the support?
As Ryles pointed out, the Eels missed too many opportunities and couldn't defend a few crucial errors.
- 13' - Bombed Chance. Williams nearly scores. Then, we gift Penrith a penalty and piggyback upfield.
- 16’ – Panthers make us pay to take 6-4 lead into the break despite Eels huge possession advantage. Flop penalty (against Matterson) gifts Panthers red-zone opportunity. McLean burns Samrani to score.
- 25' - Bombed Chance. Williams nearly scores again off a barnstorming long break — but there is no support.
- 52' - Bombed Chance. Samrani drops a bullet pass from Iongi with the line open.
- 56’ – Panthers make us pay with game on the line. They retake the lead 12-10 after Eels were leading 10-6. A Ryley Smith ruck infringement gifts repeat sets to the Panthers in the red-zone. Then, McLean grubbers for Jenkins scores.
- 71’ – Panthers make us pay to take a bigger lead 18-10. Cleary nailed a 40/20. Eels defend well, but then Fox drops the ball gifting the Panthers a repeat set in the red-zone. Then, To’o finishes a deft Edwards-Cleary link.
Watch the R10 Dolphins game. Deja vu?
Image (Getty): The Flying Fox's magic was on display, but we needed to give him more opportunities.
To’o jammed in often, but we failed to exploit the space Fox had out wide. Did we miss another opportunity? We certainly kicked for Lomax as much as possible without reaping Origin-like benefits.
Styles and Scoreboards
In the first quarter, the Eels looked electric scoring in the first three minutes to lead 4-0. Quick hands, sweeping backlines. Moses was right, left, and everything flowed. Except where it mattered: on the scoreboard.
“We were definitely under the pump [in the first 20],” admitted Panthers coach Ivan Cleary in his pressor.
“That’s our style. That’s the way we play. We don’t copy anyone,” Ryles pointed out.
“We play to what the strengths of our team are."
“He (Moses) is fast. Dylan Walker plays well with the footy. We’ve got all these different guys with different strengths, so we just need to make sure our style suits that."
“And we’re seeing just little periods of it. We just need to execute one or two of those opportunities, but they scrambled well and showed us what it looks like."
“It’s a different game, so take our lessons, keep going and keep working on our style.”
Despite the early Eels' onslaught, both Ivan Cleary and Isiah Yeo liked "the response" after last week's disaster.
Cleary: Scramble "hasn't been there this year"
“There was some scrambling there tonight that just hasn’t been there this year," confessed Ivan Cleary.
"And that can honestly be the difference between a win and loss."
That was one hallmark of their four-straight premierships and prior five-year dominance (2020-24), and it returned yesterday.
Penrith didn’t need to take many risks. They just executed their tried-and-true formula that has deserted them on many occasions this year —run hard, kick well, chase hard, tackle hard, rinse-repeat.
The High-Speed Grind Returns
The key to the Panthers' redemption and defensive improvement yesterday - was what they did with the ball and what the Eels didn't.
The Panthers had increasingly more go-forward and territorial dominance as the game wore on. Their back three—Edwards, To’o, and Jenkins—combined for over 600 metres, giving the Panthers a platform all night. Those three provided a third of the Panthers' total run metres.
On the front foot, Cleary kicked high and long enough for relentless kick chase to regularly pin the Eels in their own red zone. Often it was aimed at Fox's corner rather than Lomax's.
On the back-foot, the Eels were often forced to come out of their red-zone with Moses' often kicking them out of trouble from within their half. To exacerbate matters, the Eels kick chase wasn't anywhere near as effective - giving the Panthers an extra leg up on their kick returns.
The result: unrelenting pressure on the Eels.
Image (Getty): Moses' was outpointed by Cleary and his dangerous running game appeared hampered by a calf niggle (Hawkins was only cut an hour from the game), and a few of his attacking kicks didn't quite come off. But he was akin to an on-field coach and referee.
Half-full, Half-empty
The Stats tell a tale of two halves - and the effectiveness of the Panthers' grind. The Eels had 57% possession in the 1st half, while the Panthers enjoyed 57% in the 2nd. But it was the Panthers who made more of it.
The Panthers territorial dominance was due to their superior high-speed grind - good go-forward, great kicking game and a more agressive kick chase. Ours were far less effective. And it heaped pressure on us. The fact we didn't crack is a testament to the team.
The Battle of the Backs
Image (Getty): Casey McLean makes his mark. The 19-year-old Panthers' centre had a breakout game. He burned Samrani for a try, grubbered perfectly for a To’o finish, and shut down Lomax in defence. Ivan Cleary was full of praise: “He’s going to be a hell of a player.”
Image (Getty): Lomax did the hard yakka - once again.
The Panthers' back three probably had a points victory over the Eels back three.
Still, Iongi (155m), Lomax (201m) and the Fox (115m) did everything they could for the Eels. If we had a few more courageous and classy players such as these, it would make a world of difference.
Don't bury the Eels yet
Though lacking polish, the Eels showed heart and resilience and played well in a quality game.
There was plenty of on-field talk, and the Eels never dropped their chin.
The Eels didn't crack in the second half, nor did the floodgates open as they so often did not long ago. Just rewatch replays of last year's games — second-half implosions in nearly every one.
Their defence, especially on the line and on the edges — often a running joke for years in the past — has conceded 17 points per game (ppg) over the last seven weeks. The Dogs who have the best defence concede around 18 ppg overall for the season. It's just the wins haven't followed.
“We’re definitely heading in the right direction," Moses told us in the pressor in agreement with Ryles.
"But performances like that tonight are just not going to get the job done. We have got to execute [better]."
“It's almost there, but it's a bit frustrating.”
That's exactly what us fans want to hear - a burning desire for far more. And the next round of recruitment to fill in some of the gaps could be crucial.
It’s close. It’s coming. There's hope. But when has ‘almost’ ever been enough?
Replies
Excellent summary HOE. It is difficult to control impulses, emotions, frustrations and errors which will always be apart of the game. If you don't know how to address those factors you will always talk about badly luck and blame. Working on mental control should be able to give you a slight edge when competition becomes a game of attrition.
TAD, thanks buddy. Well said.
The Panthers actually ended up making more errors both halves. And we've won 3/5 games this year where we made less errors than the opposition.
But the Panthers' old grinding formula, Cleary's control, go-forward and their territorial dominance proved a bridge too far.
Also, the more expansive, high-speed eyes-up you play (and it looks like Ryles is going in that direction), the more likely you are to make errors especially if you haven't played together for years. We just need to be able to defend them better, hopefully...
When I was watching the game, although we played well, I felt there were a few areas to work on:
Just my two cents. Could be dead wrong.
Maybe a couple less errors HOE is why we or any other side playing the Panthers when they are at their best is what s needed.. A couple of our errors made the difference in a good game. Cheers
Your not Hoey, one of the best summaries of a match I have read!
X2
Excellent read here, HOE. (sorry, missed this one).
The game was more about the Panthers imo. 4x Premiers & if they lose that game, they don't make finals.
They defended the way they did through their golden run, and they iced the moments the Eels couldn't as you said.
Disappointing, would've been amazing to finish the Panthers season, but, it took their best & the games best, to win it in moments.
We'll be better for that game regardless of the result, that was more a finals game than a bottom of the table clash & the young Eels players didnt take a backwards step. Lots of positives there, but, I hear you, they (and we) need results to match the effort.
Get the feeling we'll go on a run at some point, but might be later in the year? Until then, its enjoyable watching the way the Eels are playing & mixing things up mid-game, it's unique.
Yet the Eels with Moses under Brad Arthur have beaten the Panthers numerous times and would have in the finals in 2021 except for the Panthers cheating via their trainer. Moses wasn't 100% against the Panthers last week and he hasn't been since he's taken over the captaincy. His first game back from injury was his best game since his return. Eels really need an experienced number 6 to help Moses as Brown has gotten worse. Hopefully there will be a signing news soon
I'll say it again combinations and a settled team makes the difference that's why the old coaches teams troubled Riff they attacked there strength the middle and went through them before going around them.
All that's happening now is new ideas combinations and structures with lesser personnel.
Alot of those players we are offloading were at there peaks 2 years ago you throw in key players being out through injury or suspension and the slide continued and now it's a fresh piece of paper.
I never expected much this year but years 2-3 is where you'll see what we really have on our hands this year is the foundation laying year.
Great to read. Whilst Moses is a premier half, he has to learn to play to our wingers strengths. Iongi needs to back up thru the middle similar to Tedesco, with Williams break he should be there or Brown. Feel we are wasting JAC by not giving him quality space
I agree " we are not giving JAC quality space" we need to work on that. An asset not being used to potential.
Part of this TAD is we've continually swapping out combinations hence why JAC hasn't seen that ball you speak of even though he's probably the eels top try scorer.
Now they DB Russell and Katonga they have to stick the rest of the season as we all know this changes again next year again it's tough ask but at some point we need to just ride out what we have.
I was saying this last year when everyone was piling on DB for not being Superman but same same if you continually change the pieces you can't build combinations and will come across execution issues.So what's going on around JaC is basically that at some point we have to stick.
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