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Opinion
The Penrith Panthers weren’t supposed to win on Thursday night.
They might have been at home, but the Panthers were without Apisai Koroisau and Nathan Cleary as they took on the team who rolled them in last year’s grand final.
Not only that, but the Storm losing two in a row is almost unheard of.
The first contest between the previous season’s grand finalists is always one marked into the calendar of rugby league fans, both supporting one of the teams or neutral, and those who didn’t would be waking up bitterly disappointed at missing a classic last night.
While the visitors may have also been without Cameron Smith and Ryan Papenhuyzen from last year’s grand final outing, it was a match that lived up to all the hype of two teams who are going to be in with a chance at going to the biggest day on the calendar again in 2021.
But it was Penrith who, even after a shaky start, managed to overcome the loss of their stars better than the opposition, and it was down to young gun Matt Burton to stand up and take the reins of his team.
Again, it took some time for the home side to get into the game. The Panthers were well and truly off the pace early, some soft middle defence letting in the opening try and poor fifth-tackle options allowing the Storm to stop their raids on the opposite line with relative ease.
But then Melbourne hit the skids, allowing the momentum of the game to shift. It raises some rather severe questions about their fitness, given they struggled to go with the Eels through the middle third in last week’s loss as well.
It is a long season, and that all may come with time, but Craig Bellamy appears to have his work cut out for him at the beginning of the post-Cameron Smith era.
It’s not as if the Storm are a million miles away fitness-wise, but they seemed to be a step behind for much of the game last night after the first 20 minutes as the Panthers middle third built a platform for their young, inexperienced spine to go to work.
That battle only got worse after halftime for the home side, who had levelled the score leading into the break. When Dylan Edwards didn’t return with a suspected broken hand though, the platform was there for the Storm to run away with the game.
Instead, the Panthers rolled up their sleeves, did some amazingly hard yards in the middle, and relied on the kicking game of Matt Burton, who flourished more and more the longer the game went on.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
He took the battle to the Storm, trying to win his team territory with his outstanding boot, but also wasn’t shy in taking on the line and attempting to create time and space for his outside backs to go to work, particularly down the left edge, which was matched up against the weak defensive combination of Reimis Smith and George Jennings.
It may not have created a great deal of points, but Burton’s creativity through his running and passing kept the Storm defence guessing. He ran the ball 11 times with varying degrees of success, and during the second half, ensured Ivan Cleary’s side barely, if ever, turned the ball over in a compromising decision.
It was his almost 600 metres kicking the ball which made that possible as he completely took over that element of the game.
The Panthers did leak a try in the 64th minute, and while it took until the very last play of the game to get that back, Burton, joined by Jarome Luai in the halves, patience was outstanding as they worked away, played for possession and then came up with the razzle-dazzle at the end to seal the deal.
Of course, there are other members of the Panthers team who deserve all the plaudits and recognition in the world, with Mitch Kenny soldiering on for 53 tackles while Isaah Yeo and Villiame Kikau led the effort in the forwards, but it was Burton who stole the show.
Premierships may not be won in Round 3, but last night’s game proved both of these teams are going to be fighting during the month of September.
It also proved beyond all reasonable doubt that Burton will be the answer to Canterbury’s long-standing attacking dilemma.
But Burton is needed by the Panthers, despite the best social media efforts of Bulldogs fans to get him released. He is the best replacement in case of an injury and will be used during the State of Origin period.
He has all the tools to succeed and successfully lead a team at this level. It’s not new information to those who have watched Burton come through the junior ranks, but it was still excellent to watch at the first-grade level in what was the best game of the season to date, and will be a contender for game of the season come the time it’s all said and done.
Just not this year.