Finals Week 3 vs Panthers - 4:00pm Sunday 27th of September - Accor Stadium

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Cleary potentially not kicking is huge. He's leading most of the kicking stats this season. He's got 750 more total metres kicked than second best, 40 more total kicks with a clear lead in attacking kicks. Obviously take it with a grain of salt but you'd imagine a lot of the Panthers' success comes off his excellent kicking game. If Cogger ends up taking most of the kicking duties, the game may well be a little more competitive in our favour than we expect.
 
If we end up with Gee we are gone...he loves set restarts and will keep pinging us for random crap.

Both the finals he was in charge of had a ridiculous amount of set restarts.
 
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Les Misérables said:
Penrith are a bad match up for us.

To defend against Penrith you kinda need to be able to control your field position because unlike the Warriors, Penrith will execute on their 5th tackle options inside the 20

The Warriors also demonstrated that we can be kept to 3 tries or less by killing our ruck speed. Something the Panthers will have no trouble doing to us
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That's not bad Les. You give us hope.
Manulaluia and McEwen are going to eat Penrith alive. Penrith do not have the defence that the Knights have. Penrith can't equal us in attack. Penrith have a great kicking game and rely on teams making mistakes in their own quarter. The Knights line of defence has been exceptional this year. The only weakness seems to be the grubber behind the line. Our ruck speed has always been slower than most teams and our kick chase has never been as fast as the best.
So let's just dream here and let's just say the coach, fine tunes the ruck and the kick chase. What doors could that open.
Penrith are not at their best and the Knights nearly are.
We win this.
 
We are definitely capable of getting a win here. Just need to play one of our better games - obviously.

We’ve had some pretty tough games. I was a little worried that we “played our grand final” on Sunday. But hearing the players talk - they seem convinced they have 2 more games left. 2 more occasions to empty the tank and then they get their rest.

Cleary plays. Cant see a world where he doesn’t. He will kick. Maybe not goal kicks if they get any. But he won’t be able to help himself with general play.
I can’t really think of too many foot type injuries that could endure the volume and intensity of running, changing direction, etc - but not be able to kick.

Tbh, I’m more worried about Liam Martin having one of his games where he’s a man possessed and flattens Ponga every time. Warriors showed how effective it was to pressure Ponga. Easier said than done when he floats around. But whenever he found himself in the line, with shape, CHT lined him up and it took a while for him to adjust.

This is a very beatable Panthers team imo. But they are also a very good team. We need to be close to our best to have a chance.
 
Vagabond89 said:
My wife is a panthers fan and we got seats in the Panthers fan section on Thursday. Tense week in our household haha
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My wife was born in Blacktown and raised a Panthers fan who used to go as a teen to games and ogle the boys. When we got together during the Aku, Vuna, Gidley, Sau days she was amazed about how much more exciting to watch they were so she became a convert… plus she had absolutely zero choice if she wanted to be with the big dog 😎🤣.

She reminded me after this game though that this team hasn’t been this exciting to watch since back then and I tend to agree. 🔴🔵
 
jamesgould said:
You know what, if there’s problems with Cleary and he either can’t play or only lasts ten minutes or something …

Then we go to the GF vs a Dolphins side that we’ve beaten this year and don’t have much finals experience …

This could be the ultimate “cards falling our way” premiership.
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The ever perpetually known as, “the wahs got robbed so that should be our trophy!” Premiership. 🙄
 
MBQLD said:
The ever perpetually known as, “the wahs got robbed so that should be our trophy!” Premiership. 🙄
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Yep, the Wahs would have won the premiership if they had got that penalty, equalised to force golden point, won golden point, beaten the Panthers, and then won the Grand Final… except in my alternative universe, there's a sin bin for the hit on Ponga, when the Knights ran in three tries.
 
Die Hard said:
Ponga to show up Cleary and show he deserves to be thought of as the best on his day. Ponga to show Edwards is nothing in comparison. Our forwards to show dominance for the first time.
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Our young forwards stood up against a monster rabbits pack and some say arguably the best forward pack in the NRL in the Warriors (therefore likely the best on the planet) and we already know how good our backs are.

This team is fair dink’m.

I know I got super down when we lost 5 players a month ago but to be fair in the past the rumour of a cold was enough for the Knights to capitulate before kick off. These guys are very much different.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
Tbh, I’m more worried about Liam Martin having one of his games where he’s a man possessed and flattens Ponga every time. Warriors showed how effective it was to pressure Ponga. Easier said than done when he floats around. But whenever he found himself in the line, with shape, CHT lined him up and it took a while for him to adjust.
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I’m also worried about Liam Martin coming out and dog shotting Ponga to effectively take him out of the game

The difference this week is Ponga knows what to expect from Liam Martin, where last week I think he took time to adjust cause he wasn’t expecting CHT to play that way.

Ponga has played a few games against Martin in origin, so he’d have some kind of a plan to combat him

Also, just an added idea around Cleary, just step on his foot a couple of times early in the game to test it out. He is fair game once he takes the field
 
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