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Penrith the winners in Maloney-Moylan swap

3rd November, 2017
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James Maloney could be a turning point for the Panthers. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
3rd November, 2017
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Only a week ago it was “plain sailing” according to Matt Moylan’s manager Allan Gainey, yet after months of speculation Penrith Panthers CEO Brian Fletcher has confirmed the $6 million player swap between Panthers skipper Matt Moylan and Cronulla five-eighth James Maloney.

It’s a deal that certainly has potential long-term benefits for Shane Flanagan’s men. However, by assessing their current situation, it is Penrith who will most immediately benefit.

Ever since reaching the preliminary final in 2014 expectations have been high for the Panthers. However, since then there has been no significant growth or improvement. Rather, despite featuring in back-to-back finals this year for the first time since 2003-04, Anthony Griffin’s men continue to be branded as the side of ‘great potential’ – a tag which does not scream ‘premiership contenders’.

However, the signing of Maloney may be just what the Penrith club need to take the next step towards being truly competitive in the premiership race.

While hooker Peter Wallace boasts 231 games worth of NRL experience, the other members of Penrith’s current spine – Moylan, Nathan Cleary and Dylan Edwards – have only played a combined 147 games, with Moylan attributing to 89 of these. While there is no doubting Moylan’s natural ability, he lacks the experience and game management of Maloney, who has made three grand final appearances, winning two.

(Image: Matt King/Getty Images)

In addition, this season the Panthers’ hopes of premiership glory were crippled by a painstakingly obvious inability to convert field position into points. Other than Cleary’s spiralling bombs, Griffin’s men typically had no clear direction as to what to do on the last tackle. While this at times suited their off-the-cuff style play, in order to be a genuine premiership threat the Panthers need to discover an element of clinical attack similar to that of sides such as the Melbourne Storm. That does not come naturally; it is the product of years of experience, something that Maloney has in spades.

On the flipside, Penrith’s lack of success in 2017 can also be attributed to their inability to get the fundamentals right, most notably missing the most tackles on average in the competition (36.4) and making the third-most errors (10.9).

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Further, Penrith were also the fifth most penalised competition in the competition, conceding on average 6.8 penalties per game. Evidently the acquisition of Maloney may not be so wise in this sense seeing as Maloney finished the season with the most conceded penalties (1.8) and missed tackles (6.0) per game in the competition.

In spite of this, it is Maloney’s proven success that will likely be the most appealing aspect of this deal. As a result, Penrith fans will expect relatively immediate success. Only time will tell whether Maloney’s acquisition is the key ingredient to premiership success for a side that has promised so much yet failed to fulfil their potential.

What do you think, Roarers? Is Maloney the man who will deliver Penrith their first premiership since 2003? Or will the change of environment allow Moylan to rediscover his magic?

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