Panthers eyeing the future as halves battle heats up

This Saturday, Penrith’s Pepper Stadium will host a trial match between the Penrith Panthers and Parramatta Eels, the final hit out for both sides before they start their 2016 NRL campaign in a fortnight.

While the result won’t be the focal point, there will be pride on the line. This fixture has been a mainstay on the calendar for years, and is referred to as the ‘Battle of the West’.

Both teams will be looking to solidify game plans, and test out combinations and plays before the proper season rolls around. It will also be a final chance for younger or lesser-known talents to push for selection in Round 1.

For a Panthers side brimming with young talent, the game is about fine tuning combinations. The Panthers’ offseason was littered with surgeries and players on recovery schedules. Although most have returned to full contact training and will be available on Saturday afternoon, the team has had limited opportunity to train with a full complement.

Coach Anthony Griffin will likely use the game to try out different halves combinations. The general public would assume Jamie Soward and Peter Wallace will be first choice, but the option of moving star fullback Matt Moylan to five-eighth and the emergence of junior Kiwi Te Maire Martin has given Griffin a headache any other NRL coach would be happy to have.

Moylan, whose 2015 was hampered by injury, was at No.6 in a trial match against the Bulldogs last weekend, playing almost equal time between fullback and the halves throughout the first half. The new skipper looked a little lost in the halves, having issues with being in the front line of both attack and defence. Being used to chiming into a slick backline move, Moylan struggled to make the same impact from 6. This could be due to time away from the game, being a little rusty, or the first signs that a move from fullback isn’t for him.

The more realistic challenge to the Soward-Wallace combination comes from Martin, one of Penrith most prized off-season recruits. Plenty of experienced and respected football minds praised Martin after an impressive Under-20s career with the Tigers. Martin finished his last season at the Tigers with 38 try assists and 10 tries in just 29 games. Unfortunately for Wests, an abundance of talent in the halves, most notably Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses, meant Martin had to look elsewhere to get his first crack at he big time.

His first outing for the Panthers was at the Auckland Nines, where the team underachieved. Martin showed glimpses of his talent, but was overshadowed by another young talent in Bryce Cartwright.

However, Panthers fans were given an insight into Martin’s abilities in the trial match against the Bulldogs last week, where his man-of-the-match performance included two sharp try assists and a runaway try from a scintillating 50-metre dash.

Griffin has a challenge on his hands, selecting a halves combination that will shape the Panthers as premiership contenders in 2016, while also keeping one eye on the future.

Whichever way he goes, Penrith fans can rest assured the club’s talent stocks are in good shape.