Another strong performance from Panthers winger Josh Mansour wasn’t enough for Penrith to prevent another tough last-gasp loss this NRL season.
Mansour ran for a game high 240 metres from 18 runs, with an offload, two line-breaks and seven tackle-breaks culminating in the 72nd-minute try that put Penrith in front for the first time in the game. Widdop and Dugan combined with some clutch plays to snatch victory from the Panthers.
Despite losing Bryce Cartwright and Will Smith to injury during the game, Mansour refused to use that an excuse, instead pinpointing Penrith’s anxiousness when in attack as the reason for the loss rather than opposition winning it.
“It was tough but there’s still a lot we can fix up,” Mansour said.
“We don’t want to leave here giving any excuses as we didn’t get the two points today.”
“We just have to know when to offload the ball and just pick our chances as well.”
“We’ve just got to play for the full 80 as I think we beat ourselves today.”
Mansour also said that the latest loss, together with last-minute losses to Canberra
and Canterbury are hard to take at the moment. He added that while it is a long season, the team needs to gel better in attack in coming weeks, starting with this Sunday’s local derby with traditional rivals, Parramatta.
“It’s still the start of the year but in saying that looking back on those games, it’s a bit disappointing knowing that we could have won,” Mansour stated.
“We’ve got to work better together and hopefully for the rest of the year we’ll find that extra gear and it will complete our team.”
“We’ll do our review and see where we can improve our game (so we can) go into
next week full of confidence.”
The Panthers winger also confirmed that while an incident in the 79th minute that
resulted in Dragons forward Mike Cooper being placed on report for a crusher tackle was accidental, he said he initially felt scared after feeling pins and needles.
“I think it was accidental nothing malicious,” Mansour confirmed.
“But I was a bit scared as first I was getting a bit of pins and needles on the field but thankfully I was able to shake it off.”
“Hopefully I just get a bit of physio during the week and it will be 100 per cent for the next game.”
Having made his Australian Test debut on the back of a stunning 2014 season, 2015 was a write-off for Mansour, succumbing to several injuries on the back of pre-season surgery that curtailed his preparations.
But the winger who averages over 184 metres per game so far in 2016, says he is much happier with is current season form and while Mansour admits playing State of Origin for NSW later this year is a goal of his, his first priority remains firmly focused on playing his role for Penrith.
“At this time I’m pretty happy coming off the back of a pretty good pre-season,” Mansour declared.
“Last year I didn’t really have a pre-season and it really showed in my game.”
“Of course it’s a goal to play Origin but my main focus is on the Penrith Panthers.”
“If the representative footy comes, I’ll take it with both hands but at this point I’m just thinking of the team and doing my job for them.”
Mansour’s form is timely given the Origin hopeful comes off-contract at the end of this season and while the 25 year-old winger would like to remain at the club beyond 2016, Mansour confirmed that talks have yet to commence.
“I love the club, it’s the club I debuted at and I’m very happy where I’m at,” Mansour said.
“It’s too early as yet but hopefully we can sort that out.”
“Right now I’m just concentrating on my footy and the team’s performance.”
“I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing for the team at this point and hopefully have a good long year.”
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All the team list information for Round 9.
