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The Penrith Panthers, led by a fantastic Matt Moylan and Josh Mansour combination put in a cracking second half performance to run away with their NRL elimination final against the Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday, winning by 16 points.
The Panthers will now move on to the semi-finals next weekend, but away from home as they take on the Canberra Raiders in what could be a very high-scoring match.
The Bulldogs meanwhile, can begin their preparations for next season after being blown off the park during the second 40.
Despite leading at halftime, they couldn’t put it together as the Penrith attack rose to the fore and dominated the contest.
Here are The Roar‘s talking points from the match.
Are the Panthers genuine contenders?
Absolutely! Of course, any team that gets to this point are only three, or in some cases two fantastic games away from winning the competition, but the young Panthers side have a bit of a special feel about them.
Unlike some other sides, their window of opportunity is quite a long one – and the Sharks spring to mind here but the Panthers won’t be in that boat – they could well be favourites to take out the competition for a number of seasons.
But don’t rule them out this season just yet.
With attacking weapons all over the park, led by Matt Moylan (and more on this shortly), along with a young halves combination in Bryce Cartwright and Nathan Cleary that is on fire they have a lot of points in them.
Peter Wallace has added consistent service out of dummy half, and their forwards are dynamic while Josh Mansour and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak add plenty from the wings, not to mention the versatile Tyrone Peachey.
If their forward pack and defence holds up, and they play three games back to back that are among their best of the season, then there is no reason they couldn’t win the comp from sixth no matter how much the odds are stacked against them.
Sure, they aren’t my tip for the win – they simply don’t have the experience or ability to wrestle and niggle with the best teams – but wouldn’t it be fascinating and refreshing to see them get the job done.
Next week’s second semi-final is going to be a cracker
We have an incredible match set up for next week when two of the most attacking sides in the competition face off with the Panthers travelling to Canberra.
While this, in many ways will rely on the fitness of Canberra guns Josh Hodgson and Blake Austin it is all set to be an absolutely mouth-watering contest.
Through the ad-lib styles of both teams, unique last tackle options for the Panthers and the explosive right side combination of Joseph Leilua and Jordan Rapana for the Raiders, there will be plenty of points come Saturday night.
The Bulldogs need change
The Bulldogs have been stuck in a bit of a rut for two seasons now, and it’s one they are struggling to break. After making the grand final in 2014, it was a disappointing second round exit last year after finishing the regular season fifth, and a first round exit this year after finishing seventh.
Apart from their dramatic fall away at the back end of the season after looking like they were going to be challenging for a position in the top four, their form is down and they are a side that needs change.
It would see it is more of a structure issue than anything else. Des Hasler is still a good coach, but fans will start losing patience with him if they have another season of ‘good, but not quite good enough.’
What it almost seems like for Canterbury is that they are still playing in 2014 mode, where their forwards dominanted the park game in and game out, and their halves were good enough to get the job done.
While injuries didn’t help their cause yesterday, their team needs change. Their attack seems stale and simply not working, while the forward pack is not the dominant force it once was.
I’m not going to sit here and say I have the answers, but someone needs to come up with them, and soon. For the Bulldogs, it won’t be good enough to simply make up the top eight numbers again.
Did Josh Morris score, and would it have mattered?
In the second half, with the Bulldogs badly needing a try, Josh Morris appeared to cross in the left hand corner through some heavy defence from the Panthers.
The referees, without a second thought allowed play to continue on ruling Morris hadn’t scored. The Bulldogs wouldn’t score for the rest of the set, or until the 78th minute when Sam Perrett crashed over actually.
There could be a case made for both sides as to whether Morris actually scored, but he did appear to roll over and plant the ball on the line. Whether momentum had stopped and it could be called a double movement is another issue, and it probably would have gone to the bunker as a ‘no try’ ruling if they had of chosen to send it there.
While it might have been a try, and the Bulldogs fans have a right to question it the fact of the matter is, they were struggling badly, and with injuries crippling them it wasn’t going to matter.
The Panthers were far too strong for them, and they ran away with the match for the majority of the second half, never looking back or truly letting the Bulldogs back into the contest.
How good is Matt Moylan?
Wow! That would be how you could sum up the Panthers fullback in one word or less during the match against the Bulldogs.
He was undoubtedly the man of the match and had an incredible combination with powerful winger Josh Mansour. For the Panthers to win the competition, whether that be this year, or next year then Moylan must be the man to step up and perform on a consistent basis.
He has all the skills at both ends of the park and has proven that on multiple occasions – the Origin fullback will need to stay consistent to keep his place in that arena, but there is no doubting his importance to the Panthers.
Well Roarers, those are our talking points from the second semi-final. What did you make of the game? What did I miss? Let us know below!
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde