Finals Five: This Penrith side might be really, really good

The Battle of the West Grand Final is on, with Penrith Panthers joining their nearest and dearest in next week’s showpiece.

It wasn’t always like that. Souths put a huge scare up the Panthers early on, but to beat them, you have to be good all the time. That’s the difference when you’re in with the big dogs.

Latrell Mitchell was too quiet. Cody Walker didn’t do enough. But, and I can’t emphasise this enough, Penrith are absoltuely brilliant.

They don’t panic. They play with patience. Irritatingly as it sounds, they trust that process so much that they’d still be grinding into the middle of next week. This is how they won.

Out-Penrithing Penrith (for a bit)

As someone who wrote the thick end of 2,000 words yesterday on the many ways in which South Sydney could come out on top in the early stages the way that they did.

In fact, let’s revisit it: “Jason Demetriou will know in his heart of hearts that his team cannot and will not defeat the Panthers in a traditional preliminary final style of game.”

Well. 20 minutes in, Souths had dominated the ball with a 60/40 and were two tries to the good. They had out-Penrithed Penrith.

Territory was equal, but Souths had undoubtedly had the better of it and created their tries through smart work in the red zone rather than the more expansive work that had worked in their regular season meeting.

Then, inexplicably, they stopped doing it. They suddenly decided to throw the ball around with more abandon, with horrendous results.

What I should say is that this proves that I know nothing, which might be true, but what it certainly proves is that you don’t give the Panthers an inch.

Pressure gonna drop on you

The scoreboard is a strange thing. Penrith haven’t trailed 12-0 – at least, full strength Penrith – since before the six again came in.

It rattled the Panthers. Granted, even rattling them resulted in four tries being wiped off by the bunker, because Ivan Cleary’s men find away pretty much all the time, but that positive variance towards South Sydney was on the back of their ability to match Penrith blow for blow.

In case you haven’t noticed, however, this team are made of stern stuff.

The late first half try for Api Koroisau might have been the moment of magic that they needed to ignite their game, because before that, the Panthers were far from fluent.

More than once, the backline shift saw the ball miss the man completely. It was going to take something special to get them into the game, and when it came, they didn’t let up.

Brian To’o try was on the back of a Souths mistake, but it was hard to argue that the Panthers were due a little bounce of the ball. Once they got their break, they didn’t look back.

Api days are here again

The big selection call ahead of time was the choice, for the third game in succession, for the Panthers to start with Mitch Kenny in the hooking role and leave Koroisau on the bench.

It’s fair to say it didn’t work this time. Damien Cook was by far the most effective in the early stages, dictating the play from behind the play the ball and manipulating the direction of Souths’ attacks.

It was a trademark Cook move, darting from dummy half and then creating an angle through the length of his pass, that enabled the first Souths try.

As Richie Kennar went in for the second, Koroisau was waiting on the sideline to come on. His impact was immense. Not only the obvious stuff, such as his superb individual try, but the less obvious way that he picks plays in the middle of sets, enabling Nathan Cleary to be in position to end them.

More often than not that is lateral work, as much to do with where the ball goes for the long-side kick or the short side play. Souths are watching for Cleary to get their kick pressure sorted, but Api is the man they have to be accountable for.

Lachy-ing with the boot

It’s quite obvious to talk about kicking, especially with the narrative that follows Fijian wingers and their inability to catch Nathan Cleary bombs. Waqa Blake, Taane Milne and, presumably, Maika Sivo next week will keep these column inches going.

We discussed above the role that the hooker played in enabling some exceptional kicking from Cleary – and latterly Jarome Luai in attack – but on the other side of the argument, it was something that Souths struggled with.

In fairness, it’s something that they have struggled with all year. In the early rounds, they alternated between Cody Walker and Lachlan Ilias, but as the year has gone on, the rookie has been given more and more seniority and now dominates the Bunnies’ planning with the boot.

He’s not a bad kicker, but has at times struggled to get the length and, crucially, find the floor. He’s got six long kicks to space (LKS) all year, compared to 16 for Cleary.

Dylan Edwards’ set starts are crucial to the way that Penrith play and he was given ample opportunity to demonstrate this. His 24 runs for 230m was enabled by clear supply of footy.

Until this point, it didn’t really matter that much because Souths weren’t that bothered about the grinding stuff anyway. It’s his first year and he will come again, but when it got to the real tough stuff, the kicking got found out.

Looking great, Calvin

Refereeing isn’t really a tactical take, but it had a huge positive impact on this match. Ashley Klein would be far from the favourite ref for many, but the manner in which he officiated tonight showed why the powers that be at the NRL give him the big gigs.

He’s authoritative, sometimes too much so, and confident, again too much so at times. But tonight, there was a forward pass for an early Souths try and he blew it instantly without thought.

When the time come for a send off, he sent the bloke off without hestitation. Granted, Taane Milne did plenty of his work for him with as bad a high shot as you’ll see, but it’s worth remembering that NRL refs generally go out of their way not to send anyone off, especially in big games.

As recently as last night there was a 3-4 week ban-worthy high shoulder to the head that got bottled. Klein is a lot of things but you can’t accuse him of bottling the big calls.

Indeed, he defused several situations and kept a lid on a game that could have boiled over at times. The bunker, too, helped him when it needed to.

When the grind was on, he let things flow. That contributes to the way the game ended, and positively so.