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Why do we ever doubt them? Down by their biggest margin of the year, 14-0, and getting battered in the forwards, it looked like Penrith might unravel.
Of course, they did not. Instead, they turned in perhaps their best showing of the year to win out 34-16, humbling Melbourne in front of a bumper crowd at Marvel Stadium.
Izack Tago was the star, putting in his best performance in first grade to pick up two tries and an assist, repeatedly terrorising the Storm right edge.
His second try, which involved bouncing Will Warbrick into the middle of next week, then straightening up to slice open the line, will live long in the memory. The Melbourne winger left with an HIA and did not return, such was the force of the carry.
This win goes down with the very best in Ivan Cleary’s scrapbook and comes with only one downer, a late injury to Scott Sorensen. The Panthers now sit pretty at the top of the ladder and will likely remain there until the end of the year.
“You’ve got to win in different ways,” said the coach. “It was the opposite of how we wanted to start, I can’t remember us starting a game that badly. Traditionally against Melbourne, they’re fast starters, so it wasn’t looking good there.
“We had to get it together, so to be ahead at half time – I can’t believe how we did it. Sometimes you miss the jump and other teams start better than you and you have to work it out.”
Melbourne actually had the same record as Penrith coming in, but they were a distant second best here. They threw the kitchen sink early on, got to a lead, but then barely left their half as the stranglehold was applied. Craig Bellamy watched on in disbelief.
“We stopped doing the things that we were doing early,” he said. “We stopped competing in some areas and you pay the price.
“They’ve been the top side in the comp for three years and they haven’t got there by luck. We took our foot off and, for that last 55 minutes, we hardly got down their end.
“It all dissolved after 25 minutes. They’re too good a side to play like that and expect to stay in the game. We got what we deserved tonight, we need to learn from it and move on.”
The Panthers system has been much lauded over the last few years, but it can’t have had many better months than this one just passed.
They’ve been missing players due to Origin, injury and everything else, but have lost just once in the last eight, and that was in Golden Point away in Townsville. It’s an astounding run.
Tonight was the best example of it yet: they went behind 14-0 to Melbourne in Melbourne, previously a death sentence. The Storm were great value for their lead, too. They were battering the Panthers.
Yet there was no sense of panic, no deviation from the plan. This team knows what it does, and does it through all the grades, so even the guys who’ve never been here before are aware of where they sit in the system.
Gradually, unerringly, the momentum changed and the Panthers got their roll on. Once they got going, it was only going to end one way.
The most impressive thing, other than the collective effort, is that the standout individuals are totally unheralded characters.
Lindsay Smith and Jack Cogger, in particular, were excellent examples of blokes who kill it in reggies and are grabbing their chance in the top grade. It’s all Cleary, though: the reason they can be so good is because they know exactly what their role is and are empowered to act within in.
It’s not the ‘next man up’ idea that Melbourne have. It’s square pegs in square holes. That might sound the same, but it’s not: Penrith excel because the system does the thinking for the players. ‘Just do your job’ is a cliche, but it works. Just watch the Panthers.
Make no mistake, Melbourne had Penrith rattled. For half an hour, they did everything to make the Panthers look listless, and, for the first time in years, soft.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona was dominating James Fisher-Harris and Moses Leota twice dropped the ball ahead of contact. These things don’t happen.
They made it count, too, with two tries that reflected their dominance. Nobody could have said the Storm weren’t value for their lead.
But that’s just one reading. Another might be that, for all their aggression and effort, they actually struggled to turn it into meaningful points.
Though they did score two tries, the first was from a charge down and the second, politely, was highly debatable and, on another day, could have been disallowed with no complaint.
OK, effort plays are great, and the Asofa-Solomona try is in the books now, but here’s the rub: they never broke the Panthers line. Across 80 minutes, the Storm managed two line breaks.
One was that Nelson try, the other was a charge from Tom Eisenhuth that was snuffed out before it really began. Beyond that, nothing.
Penrith are a supreme defensive team and, even at their most dominant, Melbourne’s attack barely troubled them.
Cam Munster, just like in their defeat to Souths, was totally absent. Harry Grant did well for the first but receded and the same could be said for Jahrome Hughes once the second try was scored.
Melbourne’s attack often boils down to those three creating, everyone else servicing. Usually, that will be fine, but against the best of the best, it’s putting a lot of pressure on three blokes.
That might be the undoing come the end of the year. Against a peak Penrith and a peak Souths – and maybe, yet, Brisbane – it’s unlikely to be enough.