Is the Panthers vs Knights this weekend a grand final preview? Well, no, but...

Saturday afternoon sees our first top-of-the-table clash of the NRL season, as the first-placed Knights take on the second-placed Panthers.

Obviously it’s very, very early to put much store in a 1 vs 2 match-up but this is shaping to be a cracking game.

Fears the Panthers may suffer from a premiership hangover have thus far been unfounded, with the reigning champions bursting out of the blocks to smash Manly 28-6 in the season opener, then easing past the Dragons 20-16 last Friday.

All this without their main man, Nathan Cleary, who will again be absent this weekend after the club decided to rest him for the first three weeks of the season to help heal his troublesome shoulder.

In his absence, back-up half Sean O’Sullivan has been fantastic, but Cleary’s co-captain, Isaah Yeo, has really stood up, claiming the full complement of six Dally M points to date.

That has him equal top of the leader board for the game’s highest individual honour, with just one other player having been awarded the full three points in both his games to date.

That’d be Newcastle five-eighth Jake Clifford.

The Knights spent the pre-season with their own halfback troubles, Mitchell Pearce having secured a release to head to France, apparently leaving Newcastle destined to tumble out of finals contention, such was his importance.

(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

But Clifford was having none of it and has been the side’s dominant half, terrifying fullbacks with his booming boot, leading his side in kick chases, and continuing to develop his running game.

His forcing James Tedesco into the error that led to the Knights’ first try against the Roosters in Round 1 may have been helped by a wild bounce, but – as the good gentlemen of the Bay 53 podcast pointed out – Clifford’s effort to chase his own monster kick and apply pressure was a classic example of the harder you work the luckier you get.

And that’s just one example. He’s been in the thick of most good things his side have achieved, showing that the club didn’t need a ‘new Pearce’ because they had identified the future of their halves when they first signed Clifford from the Cowboys at the end of 2020.

As for the man who’s actually wearing the No.7 jersey, Adam Clune, he’s had a tremendous couple of games, setting up two tries against the Tigers on the weekend in the kind of showing that has surely put to bed any lingering questions over whether Luke Brooks might jag a release from Concord and make his way to the Hunter.

Simply put, Clune was the far superior player on Sunday and is paid about one-sixth of what Brooks commands. I think we’re done here.

But it’s difficult to dwell on how well the club’s halves have been playing because both games so far have been won on the back of excellent team performances.

Dane Gagai has transformed the Knights’ right edge from disaster to deadly, his combination with Dom Young already netting four tries, while Bradman Best and Enari Tuala mean the left still has plenty of oomph.

Jacob Saifiti has picked up where he left off last season – in which he won the club’s player of the year award – Tyson Frizell will be back in a Blues jumper come Origin time if he maintains his form, and Chris Randall is averaging 40 tackles a game at 100 per cent efficiency, has a handy kicking game and has shown flashes of attacking flair that mean Jayden Brailey’s absence has thus far been almost unnoticed.

Tyson Frizell (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

But on that line of thinking, perhaps most impressive is the fact the Knights have been without so many of their star players.

Along with Brailey, Origin prop and pack leader Daniel Saifiti has yet to lace up his boots this year, same with experienced forward Sauaso Sue, the club’s first-choice wingers Hymel Hunt and Edrick Lee (Eddie’s last game was for Queensland, so yes, he’s still a first-choice winger), the versatile Brodie Jones and Jack Johns, and back-up fullback Bailey Hodgson.

And they really needed a fill-in custodian on the weekend, as Kalyn Ponga was pulled from the line-up prior to kick-off with a knee injury, as was former Kangaroo and Origin prop David Klemmer.

The entire first-choice front row, fullback and wingers were missing, along with four handy squad players – who are pretty damn important to have fit and ready if you’re missing six of your starters.

But it made no real difference, as Newcastle hammered the Tigers 26-4, in a showing that the club’s ‘next man up’ mentality that coach Adam O’Brien has sought to instil from his days at Melbourne is finally starting to work.

That said, the Panthers are not the Tigers.

It remains to be seen just how bad the injuries to the above-mentioned players are, with rumours that Ponga and Saifiti may sit out this weekend as well, in what would be a significant blow to hopes of a red and blue boilover in Bathurst.

Penrith have their own issues however, with Cleary – as mentioned above – at least another week away from a return, while Brian To’o and Moses Leota are on the long-term injured list, and there is a cloud over James Fisher-Harris.

Regardless of the outs, the people of Bathurst will be treated to a fantastic arvo of footy as the best two teams of the first two weeks of the comp go toe-to-toe in a game that – barring a blowout win for either the Broncos or Storm, who are also undefeated – should decide who will be atop the ladder at the end of Round 3.