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Penrith Panthers have proven too good for a gallant yet wasteful Canterbury Bulldogs side, winning 32-12 in their Sunday night clash at CommBank Stadium.
Trent Barrett pointed to the huge number of errors that his side committed as the primary cause of their defeat, but said that there were still things that could be taken from the display.
“They’re trying hard, give us that,” said the Bulldogs coach. “The most glaring thing was our own errors coming out of our own half.
“I think we had eight from first or second plays and Penrith are too good a team, you can’t invite them into your own half.
“The difference between the two sides is that they don’t make errors.
“You’ve got to earn everything you get against them. We gifted them too much field position and in the end, as brave as you can be, it wears you down.
“There’s green shoots in there though. Of the six good ball sets that we had, I thought we looked a lot more organised.”
The talk throughout the week had surrounded Kyle Flanagan, recalled from the wilderness to the Dogs’ side.
While his involvement levels were low – just 21 possessions all in – when he did get the ball, he looked more effective than Jake Averillo and Brandon Wakeham, the two previous incumbents of the number 7 jersey this year.
“I thought he was really good,” said Barrett. “The chances and opportunities that we did have down on their tryline, we looked organised.
“He’ll gain a lot of confidence out of that. As much as he would say he wasn’t, he probably wasn’t that happy with the attention that it got, but he handled it well.
“Certainly, our issues were at the back of the field and not there.”
It was a perfunctory performance from the Panthers – that they make this kind of win routine is a credit in itself – and from the 7th minute, when Taylan May opened the scoring, the result was never in doubt.
It was a case of the Panthers playing the hits: Isaah Yeo’s passing, Dylan Edwards’ dig, Jarome Luai’s impish runs and Nathan Cleary dictating the lot. All were on display.
It was put to Ivan Cleary that Edwards – who is now averaging over 250 runnings metres a game – was in career best form in 2022.
“It’s hard to argue,” said the Panthers coach. “When Dylan is in good form he’s in our top three or four players every week and that’s been the case this year.
“He does an enormous amount of work that you can see and that you can’t.”
Yeo was also excellent, but was withdrawn late in the game. Cleary confirmed that he was merely resting the lock, who had been under the weather in the build up.
“Isaah is a little crook today and I can tell when he’s struggling,” he said.
“He’s been playing 80 every week and had to carry the can when Nathan was out, and it’s not just the 80, it’s how much he does.
“I was planning to put him back on but luckily there was enough distance in the scoreline. Any time I can give him a rest is going to help.”
The game was achingly similar to most games featuring the Bulldogs this year.
They fought hard, shot themselves in the foot through errors, struggled to get attack going and let in soft tries on the back of gifting their opposition the ball. 16 errors and just one line break tells its own story.
Matt Dufty, with four errors on his own, must feel threatened about his place going forward.
Against Melbourne last week, that left Trent Barrett’s men staring at a 44-0 scoreline and while their defence and commitment ensured that they were not beaten that badly this time around, it would be a push to call this anything like a contest.
From the first moments, it was clear that this probably wouldn’t end well for the Dogs. They were fortunate that the bunker spotted Izack Tago’s put a foot in touch to deny Penrith an early lead, but they only had to wait until the 7th minute to get on the board.
Isaah Yeo was playmaking in the middle, forcing Jarome Luai to play outside of him. When the five-eighth got the ball, he knew where his backline partners were and threw a long pass that interested Brent Naden enough to present room for Taylan May on the outside to touch down under pressure from Flanagan.
May would have a big hand in the second. He broke a tackle on his own 30 – rather, Braidon Burns missed badly – and released Izack Tago.
Tago looked for all the world that he was going the distance, but Matt Dufty caught him. No worries for the young Panther: he had Dylan Edwards on his inside to go under the sticks.
Presented with the opportunity from the same position, Cleary made it 14-0 from a penalty. Perhaps a more relevant 14 was that with 25 minutes played, the Panthers had completed 14 sets to the Bulldogs’ four.
The Bulldogs needed a momentum shift and Matt Burton provided one. His 40/20 was near-perfect and gave the field position that the Dogs needed, but not for the first time this season, they chose to run centrally rather than allow their playmakers to go to work.
One felt for Flanagan, with just three touches in half an hour of footy, as three times he waited in position only for a forward to duck back towards the centre and not give him the ball.
The newly-recalled halfback had to inject himself into the game and managed it. He clattered Luai to create an error and then as a last tackle option, kicked for the same opponent to drop the ball cold at the feet to Tevita Pangai Jnr. It wasn’t pretty, but it got the Dogs over the stripe for the first time in three hour’s worth of footy.
Scoring is not an issue for the Panthers. It had been mostly Yeo digging into the line and cutting back to Cleary, but roles reversed for Liam Martin to go over behind the posts.
The weaknesses in the Bulldogs’ defence was starting to show. Spencer Leniu exposed a gap between Max King and Corey Waddell to get on the board.
Again, the Dogs needed a momentum shift. Flanagan nearly provided it, putting Joe Stimson through a gap, but Dylan Edwards saved the try with a superb ball and all tackle.
Stimson would not be denied. In what was perhaps the first flowing move of the Bulldogs’ season, they went wide and released Josh Addo-Carr. He showed his speed and got the ball inside for the forward to streak over the line.
The Dogs can’t do anything right at times, however. Matt Dufty dropped the kickoff over the deadball line and killed any momentum built before Mitch Kenny grabbed the third try by a forward close to the posts.
Viliame Kikau was denied a final try on the bell by the bunker, but the result was no more in doubt than it was in the 7th minute.