Post Match 2023 Penrith vs Warriors - Week 1 Finals (Post Match)

[Makasene]

The loss of SJ was monumental. One thing the coaches have control over though is selection.

Plain and simple they selected a team that couldn't win the game.

We went into a finals game against the minor premiers with no halfback, no general kicking play, no repeat sets.

To compound that we went away from our key interchange strategy with Walker.

5 games at five-eight for Walker for 4 losses. We got rid of our best strategy in favour of a stop gap.

And then the bench?? 60 mins for Curran to get on. Lussick on with a few minutes left? Bone headed.

This one is on the coaches.

 

[Ever Hopeful]

Well done Panthers, way too good.

Who'd have thought we'd be there at the start of the year. We've benefitted from a friendly draw, but shown we are better than the teams beneath us. But, we are missing some quality in a few positions, and the Broncos and Panthers are far better than us. I dare say the Knights are finishing stronger too. I'm still hella proud at the improvements of this side.

We played really direct for most of the season, but it feels like sides have really worked out our game plan there, defended well, and we don't have the talent in the backs to counter it. Nor a game plan to kick in behind, and I think if we play conservatively we get beat from this point on.

Let's hope the match review committee leaves us alone.

 

[gREVUS]

pretty obvious result. Missing players, no time to form decent combos. Leaving holes that everyone feels the need to cover, causing bunching in the middle and big overlaps on the edges.
Thought the effort was pretty good.

 

[Ever Hopeful]

Bottom side without SJ

No chance, getting well beat by the Panthers (who had a great night) doesn't mean we are a bottom side. Just not a top one.

 

[Beastmode]

Well done congrats PENRITH!!!

I have mad respect for this team. They are the benchmark and we are not far away.

We gave it and played the full 80mins

No injuries
No suspensions

Ref bias and a few brain farts was the difference

The future looks bright boys

Onwards and upwards.

Warriors strong.

 

[Sir Arrow]

• Curran Needs longer game time. He can tackle and ball play and has form.
• Niukore cannot ball play, the ball dies with him. he should be in the middle.
• Sironen offers nothing, constantly heads in the wrong direction, and falls off tackles.
• Jazz is rusty af, but I get it - experience.
• Montoya has been on the slide for a while and gives me 2021-2022 vibes. More clipping players than tackling them today. Not a big game player. Will cost us.
• As glass as Egan can be, it's a wasted bench spot having Lussick there.
• There was no game plan, no real bench strategy, no excuses for Webby.
  
  On a positive note, the effort was there.

 

[LeagueJunkie]

Will be a different story when we meet the Panthers in the GF.

 

[bringinthebulls]

Man, my only thoughts is that we dug in deep. We didnt drop our heads. Penrith are something else, i give them my props.

Alot of inexperienced and long awaited finals players in our squad vs. a complete team of finals experience basically.

2011 - Finals week 1. Brisbane 40 Warriors 10. We went on to make the GF. She aint over yet.

I know "up the wahs" is the saying these days for gen xyz or whatever, but theres an original saying that's "keep the faith" i'm keeping mine

 

[Christchurch_Warrior]

The Pompey Montoya combo is far too slow. Manly showed other teams that weakness when Saab and Koula schooled that edge, Charnze isn’t that fast for a fullback either. Every Penrith back was faster than the warriors player he was up against.

Penrith get away with everything on defense. It’s like refs are afraid to penalise them.

To be honest I see RTS taking this spot next year with Ali edging Berry on the other side. Wasn't that sold on Ali after just one FG game but after watching the cup game today he has the goods.

 

[defensivebomb]

We weren’t going to win that one - playing the minor prems and 2x defending champions, away, without our playmaker, with TMM undercooked and with a small bench

I thought we performed OK, in that we defended well and didn’t hose 50 points.

The loss of SJ was huge on many levels. Without him, we
1. Didn’t have his decision making
2. Put our best interchange into 7
3. Had to make do with a halves pairing that hasn’t played together
4. Had to change our game plan
5. Shrank our bench

The fact that the boys didn’t give up was heartening

 

[Est95]

I'm proud of the effort. I know we leaked 32 points, but some of our goal line D was awesome and showed real desperation. Massive effort.

We looked up for it early on, but Penrith just punished our errors. As well as some cheap (dubious) penalties really put us under pressure.

Kicking game was average (as expected), and we just didn't build any pressure. TMM and Walker ran our plays but we ended up to lateral with no one straightening and digging into the line. end result we went over the sideline a couple of times.

Credit where its due, Penrith were pretty impressive. Their defence was rock solid and Cleary had an awesome game. They are tough to beat and Minor Premiers for a reason.

Still proud of the effort, which gives e hope that next week they will come back firing.

 

[Canonball]

You know that was actually good while Penrith were excellent - I enjoyed TMM's defence and the bump he put on Leota - be brilliant to see him and SJ combine

And our centres weren't as terrible as some comments either - we had little ball to do much with but on attack the inside play was definitely not direct enough for them to open up the wings -- the one try was partly due to good distribution by Berry (and that amazing pass by Dallin back inside) - and defensively they were pretty good too (though yeah Pompey's miss on Clearly for his try shitted me, reckon he should have mad a covering tackle there)

 

[unclesteve]

On a lighter note look at these losers playing an elimination final.....aim for better, be a top 4 side, like the Warriors!

 

[Boats n Hoes]

Meh i only had as a 30% chance of beating the Premieres anyway......and that was with SJ in the team.

Penrith were clinical. They were just playing at a whole different warp speed to us at times. Like the champion team they are showed their ability to lift intensity levels...we just couldnt go with them when they did.....something we'll get better with the more we experience these sort of games.

We made it harder with the all the errors......and tbh our kicking game (or lack of it) was so telling...... no general to steer us around, put the ball in the right parts of the field, finish off our sets, pressure the opposition.......thats the minimun requirement and even then theres no guarentee of a win but definitely no chance without it.

If no SJ next week Volkman has to come in for mine and i've always hated that bench configuration Webby's favoured the latter part of the season with no genuine prop and carrying Lussick when u have potentially 3 other players capable of spelling Egan for a 10 minute break if needed.

That said this season has already been a win in my eyes regardless, and the learnings we'll get from this game and finals series will hold us in good stead. If SJ's back next week im confident of a win at home wether its against Raiders or Knights.......if he's not then its probably 50/50 but it'll still be an improved showing i believe.

Think both team and coaches are learning as they go, We were never going to be the finished article season one.

 

[Tragic]

We pretty much fucked it from the start.offsude on the first kick chase is what webby singled out.

Little things.

Their first try was just after that, set up by an offside kick chase from them identical to ours but not pulled up.

They were allowed a lot of latitude in the ruck to fuck around, they are very good at that and then 4th, 5th tackle if they have kept you in your 30m they back off to avoid a 6 again - smart.

10m - pffft

Block runners on their kicks - ho hum

Also would have liked a slow mo replay on that try down the sideline, am sure there was an arm touch the sideline.

Sure they were better but it's a lot easier to be better when you have all the ball.

Yes I am one eyed but Gee only uses half an eye.

We just got to get better and better so the calls go out way.

No Inruin comments allowed.

 

[pleatedpantspete]

The coach is the only person who can be blamed...

Did the players lack effort? Did they show no resilience? No they played their guts out. What we lacked was any semblance of a game plan. Going through the motions we normally would, was always going to end in defeat.

Webby picked a mobile bench and then never used an mobile attacking game plan.

the coach got us to top 4 in the first place.

is it coach's fault that the ref allowed penrith right of way in the ruck? or a ref who can rule knocks on and accidental offsides on the fly that the bunker can't see? or the bunker can't seem to see to'o grounding a ball short and rolling it over the line?

is it coach's fault we don't have a half capable of kicking distance to get us out of trouble, something we've relied on all year with johnson?

was it webby's gameplan to complete at 72%? lower than penrith?
was it's webby's gameplan to have twice as many errors and missed tackles as penrith? Can't blame the coach for knocking on to start the second half in our own end.

come off it... we're 4th over 15th last year with much the same side. The difference is the coach. Loads went against us that game, before the game even kicked off. We needed a lot going our way to beat penrith, and it didn't. We didn't even get to see the warriors play the game we've seen them play. Maybe if they did and we got beat I'd be more inclined to look at the coach but until then.... Jazz can you please stop dropping the ball on our own 10 metre thanks

 

[Fonzie]

Im a bit perplexed about what Webby is trying to do and why our form seems to be going backwards.

My best guess though is:
- we started the year a prop (or two) short, and I thought we would end up bottom 5. Webby came up with a model involving ball playing middles, but also overloading AFB and Tohu, that overcame that weakness to a point.
- as the year has gone on AFB and Tohu are fatiguing from overwork and other teams have figured our model out and are adjusting
- we always knew we were stuffed without SJ firing. The miracle is he’s lasted this long in this good form
- a number of players have had career best years; after a while you expect a little reversion to mean
- I reckon we heavily front loaded the conditioning work to start well; other top teams build into the year

We’ve had an unbelievably good year and exceeded my wildest expectations. I reckon we’ve run our race though.