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It’s almost a must-win situation for the Penrith Panthers in Round 21 when they host the struggling, out of contention Canterbury Bulldogs. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:50pm (AEST).
The Bulldogs appear to be out of contention for the finals. With six games to go, Canterbury sit on just 18 competition points and are already six points behind the eighth-placed St George-Illawarra Dragons.
A three game turnaround in the limited time remaining seems almost impossible – even with a win here – so all the intrigue and focus around this game switches to Penrith.
They have been inconsistent to say the least this season, but seem to be really hitting the top of their game, particularly in attack over the last fortnight.
Nathan Cleary has been the key man for Penrith, as they picked up a pair of victories away from home against the New Zealand Warriors, then back at the foot of the mountains against the Gold Coast Titans.
Their defence still has issues, given they conceded 38 points across the two games, but their attack is what they can build themselves on and it finally has looked to fire.
What will be interesting is whether they can maintain that with Matt Moylan out. It’s been a spark to play him in the halves over the last few weeks, but he is injured and will be replaced by rookie Tyrone May, who hasn’t done anything wrong in his previous opportunities.
Penrith do sit a single win outside the top eight, but have a great run home. They only play two more games away from home and only one side in the top four.
The Bulldogs, on the other hand, have slumped from one low to the next in 2017. As mentioned, they are a long way from the finals and are currently 13th. Even more worrying would be that their season was effectively on the line last week and they got trounced 42-12 by the Brisbane Broncos.
It wasn’t their worst performance of the season. They seemed to be in the contest, throwing it around during the first half but some dumb errors in the second, compounded with too much defense saw the scoreboard skip away.
Whether it was a fair reflection of the contest is irrelevant. The bottom line is that they brought it upon themselves and played a poor game, leading to a loss that all but ended their season.
They seem to be a club with no direction and not nearly enough effort in the forwards. Captain James Graham makes his return this week and could change that, but the Bulldogs will need to rise in the face of adversity with fresh rumours swirling around coach Des Hasler this week.
Prediction
The Panthers are going to win, the only question being by how much. If Cleary plays well, they could skip away with this in the second half.
Panthers by 18.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this Round 21 clash from 7:50pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment below.