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PRICHARD: Gould's Panthers choose depth over big fish

17th March, 2014
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Phil Gould should be reprimanded for his comments during the State Championship grand final. (Image: Paul Miller / AAP)
Expert
17th March, 2014
22
1777 Reads

I like Phil Gould’s taste in seafood almost as much as I like his taste in player recruitment.

Penrith’s decision to sell off big-name but hugely expensive players and bring in replacements the club saw as fitting in better with its plans of becoming a premiership force again received enormous scrutiny.

But we’re seeing the positive results now. The Panthers have been one of the best teams of the opening two rounds of the NRL and, after opening with a terrific win over the Knights, were unlucky not to win a fantastic game on the road against Melbourne on Saturday.

Now, whether or not you like Gould as a television commentator and newspaper columnist, you’ve surely got to admire his resilience. He doesn’t let criticism get to him.

As the boss at the Panthers, he – obviously along with coach Ivan Cleary – has made a lot of big decisions on players in the last couple of years.

Plenty of those decisions have been bagged unmercifully, but Gould hasn’t been bothered by any of that.

Luke Lewis, Michael Jennings, Lachlan Coote, Michael Gordon, Luke Walsh and the now-retired Petero Civoniceva are among those who moved on from the club.

They are all excellent players in their own right, but the club had a plan to go in a different direction and the results last season – and particularly early this season – suggest the future is bright.

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It is very hard to build a squad as deep and as wide as you need to be successful in the NRL if a small portion of your playing roster is eating up an enormous portion of your salary cap.

That is the problem Penrith faced and rather than live with it the club decided to do something about it.

In came players like James Segeyaro, Peter Wallace, Jamie Soward, Tyrone Peachey, Elijah Taylor, Isaac John, Sika Manu, Kevin Naiqama, Brent Kite and, most recently, Jamal idris.

Lately, there has been talk two more Penrith players who have been on big contracts for some time – Tim Grant and Sam McKendry – were being shopped around to other clubs as well.

We’ll have to wait and see whether that speculation turns into something real.

But with the change in personnel at the Panthers has come a change in playing style and attitude. The depth appears to be there now, too.

The Panthers of a couple of years ago would have lost their way after falling behind in the first half against the Storm, but the team of today didn’t.

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They stuck at it and went blow-for-blow in the desperate final stages of a fabulous contest, only losing 18-17 when Wallace failed with a long-range penalty goal attempt right at the end in heavy rain.

Wallace and Soward played together in the halves in the 30-8 win over the Knights, but Soward missed the game against Melbourne through injury. It didn’t stop the Panthers, though. John came in for him and did enough.

Naiqama replaced the injured David Simmons on the wing and scored two tries and probably should have had a third – a forward pass call was questionable.

Idris missed the first-round game through injury, but made a terrific debut for the club against the Storm.

I can see Idris getting back into major representative football if he builds on that form. He was too big and strong for the defence to handle at times – and he played smart.

Nigel Plum and Adam Docker lead the way for the Penrith forwards when it comes to making their defence hurt. Segeyaro and Tyrone Peachey are potential game-breakers off the bench. Matt Moylan is developing at fullback.

The Panthers are good things to make the finals this year – and even put pressure on for a top-four spot. I don’t know if they’re ready to go all the way and win the premiership, but there’s not a lot you should rule out in the NRL – look at the much-maligned St George Illawarra early on.

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As for Gould and seafood, he took to Twitter yesterday to detail why, as had been reported, he was lining up for takeaway fish and chips near his southern Sydney home at the same time as the Panthers were fighting out that finish with the Storm.

Gould explained an electrical storm had blacked out the power in his suburb and his wife eventually sent him out to get dinner for the kids.

He said he followed score updates on his mobile.

He even tweeted the family meal list: Prawn cutlets, calamari, grilled ocean perch, fish cocktails, chips and Greek salad.

Sounds like the perfect Saturday evening meal. It made me hungry just thinking about it.

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