Penrith coach Ivan Cleary says his young side will take confidence from their Round 1 win over the Sydney Roosters in Friday night’s qualifying final.
Cleary could never have predicted what would follow a Round 1 NRL victory over the Sydney Roosters, but it did set Penrith up for what was to come.
The young Panthers side had some success in the NRL Nines in February before shocking the competition with a 20-14 upset against the short-priced premiers in the first game of the year.
It sent shock waves through the competition considering the Panthers had lost James Maloney from the year before, leaving question marks over their attack.
And since then, the Panthers have lost just one game and drawn another.
Ahead of Friday night’s qualifying final against the Roosters at Panthers Stadium, Cleary said the team has ridden the confidence that first win gave them all throughout the season.
“When the draw comes out and you look at your early rounds, sometimes it can be a good thing to get the top dogs first up so that means you’ve got months to prepare mentally for your first game,” he said.
“We just saw it as a chance to get out and compete against the best.
“Sometimes it doesn’t really matter what the result ends up being, but you can learn a lot about yourself and where you stand.”
That night, the Panthers were 12-0 down after 20 minutes but clawed their way back into the contest.
They were the signs Cleary wanted from a young side.
And although the COVID-19 pandemic did its best to end the NRL season – and Penrith’s momentum – they carried on.
“We got the result but there were other things around our performance and what we needed to do to be successful, we were able to get done that night,” he said.
“It was a bit unfortunate it was only a week later everyone broke for six weeks.
“But we came back and played some other big games after that, Melbourne, Parramatta and Souths.
“By Round 6 or 7 we’d had some good wins under our belt and that definitely gave us confidence.”
Their 15-straight wins are the most a side has had coming into the finals since Jack Gibson’s 1975 Roosters team that went on to win the title.
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Roar Guru
Knew this from the beginning that the Panthers could build on from its round one win over the Roosters, even after COVID-19 caused the season to be suspended. It's wins like these that can make or break a season, and in the case of the mountain men, it was the first brick laid in a season of success they are enjoying. Also worth noting, the only team they failed to beat all year were Newcastle, against whom the Panthers had a 14-all (?) draw in round three. Though they did have a loss to the Eels in round five, the mountain men got them back in round 18.
Andrew01
Roar Rookie
I believe they haven't trailed in the second half of a game since Rd 10 (when they had to come from 6 points down against the Cowboys at home) and while they won that game, they won late and it was very ugly.. So I think it will be fascinating to see how they respond if they fall behind in the second half tonight, or during the Finals. ... and not just the players, but how coach Cleary responds...
Paul
Roar Guru
I've no doubt the Panthers would have gained huge confidence from that round 1 win and it's wrong to take away from what they've achieved in the season to date. That said, the finals are whole new kettle of fish. If they find themselves 12 nil down tonight, I suspect they'll find it a whole lot harder to get back into the game.
Brendon
Roar Rookie
Not to take away from them (well it kind of is) but we all keep talking about the win streak without the biggest astrix possible. This has been the first year in the modeern NRL era at least that the top teams haven't been smashed by Origin duties. Look at 2017 Storm, once of the best teams of recent memory for sure, never looked like losing. Lost 2 games during Origin. I dont tout the asterix much, but in this case, its something that needs to be mentioned as its the key reason this long streak has been able to exist and its the first time since 1975.