‘Line in the sand': Panthers were last on the ladder two months ago, but an ugly night in Bathurst has them on track for a fifth title

News.com.au

4 days ago

Competitions aren't generally won or lost on cold May nights in Bathurst, but it could be a different story for the Panthers who have used their round 12 loss to Newcastle as the line-in- the-sand moment that has turned their season around.
Penrith's four premierships have all been built on their defence, with Ivan Cleary's side conceding the fewest points every season from 2020-2024.
But that defensive dominance was nowhere to be seen at the start of the season, with the champions coughing up at least 20 points in nine of their opening 11 matches to find themselves at the bottom of the table after 12 rounds.
It was an unthinkable place for them to be in and was capped off by a first-half horror show in Bathurst where they struggled without their Origin stars to be down 24-0 at the break.
For the first time, people were willing to write that the dynasty was over. But you can never count out a champion, with that night sparking a wild turnaround that has put the rest of the competition on notice.
The Panthers have won six on the trot, haven't allowed 20 points in any of those games and have conceded just 68 points – the fewest by any team in that period.
'You can just feel like we're more resilient, we're stopping tries, we're making it hard for the opposition, whereas that wasn't really the case for the first half of the season,' co-captain Isaah Yeo said.
'I feel like they'd go down on our end in the first set, they'd put on a play, and it wasn't under pressure, and all of a sudden they're scoring, and you're probably sort of kicking yourself going, what's just happened to everything we spoke about?
'But I feel like we're trusting the system a bit more, we're being a bit more proactive, particularly at the start of the games, and when you're holding your line and being resilient, that affects the other team's confidence.
'We've relied on that for such a long period of time now, and we didn't have that for the first half of the season. It's not something you can ever take for granted.
'It happens at training, it happens in your reps, making sure the intensity's up, so there's been a real shift in that regard ever since the line-in-the-sand moment being the Bathurst game.'
Edge forward Scott Sorensen missed that game in Bathurst but led from the front with a double a few weeks later when the Panthers went to Auckland without their Origin stars and upset the Warriors.
'I think we have shared and spoken about the line-in-the-sand moment. And that's exactly what it was. It was just like, we have standards here,' he replied when asked about the Knights loss.
'We have a level that we want to play at. We have a level that we want to train at. And we're not doing it at the moment. Let's fix it. And let's do it.
'We've spoken previously in the last few weeks about keeping each other accountable and wanting to play our best footy defensively and obviously offensively as well.
'It's nice to hear that outside people are recognising that. It's just keeping each other accountable and doing our job.'
As poorly as Penrith started the season, only three teams have conceded fewer points than the Panthers who suddenly look exactly like the side that has dominated the NRL for years.
'We've definitely noticed that particularly other years when we are on top, we look at it a little bit more. This year maybe not as much because we haven't been up the top there,' Yeo said.
'We understand that if you can put pressure on the team because you're making them have to change because you are defending so well, that's a good thing.
'The first half of the season we weren't doing that. Teams were sort of doing what they wanted and good things were coming off the back of it.
'Whereas at the moment we're holding our line, and that's probably making teams have to change on the run. Any time you do that, it gives you confidence.
'And off the back of that, you get in the game style you want. You get more ball in play. It all flows so much into each other.
'We certainly understand that when we're defending well, it keeps the ball in play more. And flip side of that, when you're having to score points and get frantic, that doesn't suit most teams.
'But it probably doesn't suit the way we've played over the last five or six years. We're just having to do too much work, particularly in first halves, I feel like.
'We were having to tackle way too much just because of the pressure we were putting on ourselves. Or at the moment, at least it's happening to both sides. There's actual fatigue for both sides. It's a hard style to play, but it suits us.'
It's scary for the rest of the league to see them playing this well, especially when they still feel like they can improve.
'I don't really care about the rest of the competition, to be honest,' Sorensen said.
'It's about us and what we're doing.'