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Matt Moylan sent a message to Laurie Daley as he starred in Penrith’s 40-0 NRL mauling of the besieged Gold Coast in Bathurst on Saturday.
While Jamal Idris was the destroyer for the Panthers – crossing for three short-range tries – Moylan was the architect.
The fullback set up two of Idris’ four-pointers before sending Dean Whare over for his second and made two line breaks in a display that has positioned him as the early favourite to inherit Jarryd Hayne’s No.1 NSW jersey.
Blues coach Daley is a fan of the 23-year-old and Penrith coach Ivan Cleary declared the youngster was the type of player who would thrive at representative level.
“Matt’s still pretty young and I think the Four Nations experience was good for him in that he didn’t get a game,” Cleary said.
“If he got a few games he might have come back and felt pretty good about himself. But he came back with a little bit of fire in him.”
Asked if Moylan was ready to tackle State of Origin, Cleary said: “I’ll tell you one thing about Matty, any level he’s gone to he’s gone up with that level.”
The Panthers produced a poor first half but put the pedal down after the break, crossing for six tries.
The Titans were terrible in patches, particularly with ball-in-hand, failing to complete a set of six after the 55th minute.
Centre James Roberts looked helpless in defence marking Idris while captain Nate Myles gave away two penalties and ran for just 63 metres from eight carries.
Titans coach Neil Henry said he was hopeful the five players on cocaine charges would be reinstated next week.
Greg Bird, Dave Taylor, Beau Falloon, Kalifa Faifai Loa and Jamie Dowling have been stood down while their court cases are being heard.
However the Gold Coast board is being encouraged to reinstate them and Henry said he hoped for the situation to be resolved early next week.
“There’s no doubt there’s been a lot of distractions but we can’t sit here and make excuses for that performance,” Henry said.
“There was a lot to like about the first half, we really had some opportunities, making some good line breaks, the last pass going to ground or (David Mead) finds one of the Penrith players on the inside and turns a possible six points into nothing.”
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