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Penrith took their next step towards a historic sweep of Premierships, defeating Norths Devils 44-10 in the State Championship Grand Final.
Having already secured the under-20s and under-18s titles, and competing for the first grade late in the day, the meeting of the NSW Cup and Q Cup Premiers evidently mattered massively to the Panthers.
Allied to their enthusiasm, 13 of their 17 had first grade experience this year, with two – Soni Luke and Sunia Turuva – highly likely to go to the World Cup with Tonga and Fiji respectively. The Devils had just Brendan Piakura to play NRL in 2022, and he only got 23 minutes of it. The mismatch was clear.
It mightn’t have been so. Tyson Gamble was scratched from the Norths squad an hour before kick off, and without him, a difficult task was nearly impossible.
Luke was the star for Penrith, creating multiple tries and grabbing of his own. His performance was so strong that he was a clear man of the match despite spending ten minutes in the bin.
J’maine Hopgood, in his last game before joining Parramatta next year, signed off in style. The Panthers captain scored twice and topped the metre count for his side.
Penrith’s dominance was set early. Turuva might have scored early after claiming a spilled kick, and while the bunker saved the Devils on that occasion, it could not when Hopgood touched down Luke’s kick.
Norths needed to throw the kitchen sink at Penrith to get something, but were consistently repelled by excellent Panthers defence. When they did break through, Jacob Gagan failed to stick the grounding.
He was immediately punished at the other end. Luke, who had laid on the first, grabbed an excellent solo try, before Matt Eisenhuth put Eddie Blacker through a gaping hole.
Kurt Falls injected himself into the game. He sent John Faimu through a gaping hole on the left, then did the same with Robert Jennings on the right.
The Devils threw back, with fullback Jack Ahearn – consistently their best – making a break through the middle and forcing a penalty from Luke, who was binned.
Playing a man light didn’t stop the Panthers. Luke Somerton ran through tired defence to take the lead beyond 30 points, though it was pegged back by Tony Tumusa on the back of a spectacular, through-the-legs offload from Leivaha Pula.
It was only a temporary respite. Luke, back from the bin, repeated his first half trick with the boot to get Hopgood in again. Rashaun Denny got a consolation with five to play, but it was merely that as Turuva got another on the bell.
For an encore, prop forward Faiumu goaled from the sideline.