Roosters 12 – Panthers 40
The Roosters were in the fight early and well up for the contest, but ultimately this young side ran into the Penrith of old in what turned into a dominant Panthers performance.
It’s shaping up to be a year of growing pains for the Roosters as they rebuild and give their young squad valuable experience. Unfortunately, games like this will likely be part of that process. To their credit, they showed plenty of fight, but were simply outclassed—and as a Roosters fan, you can cop that.
Naufahu Whyte was a one-man wrecking ball in the middle—running for 169 metres, with 3 tackle busts, an offload, and a massive 39 tackles (only 3 missed). Robert Toia continues to impress and looks every bit a future star. Mark Nawaqanitawase is electric—something happens every time he touches the footy. Personally, I think he’s a natural centre, which will make next week interesting if Billy Smith returns. Dom Young looks the obvious one to drop out, but I’m still not convinced that wing is the best spot for Nawaqanitawase.
As for Penrith—they were back to their best tonight, and it was a scary sight for the rest of the comp. It took them a little while to find their groove, but once they did, the Roosters just couldn’t keep up. It was the same simple, high-level footy they’ve been playing for the past five years: relentless line speed, physical defence, elite kicking game from Nathan Cleary—he had it on a string—and ruthless execution whenever the Roosters slipped up.
All the usual suspects were involved in what was a clinical performance. It was a Nathan Cleary, Dylan Edwards, and Isaah Yeo masterclass. They were scoring tries, setting them up, and guiding Penrith to a huge win. It was easily Edwards’ best game of the year—back to his damaging best with 27 runs for 238 metres, 2 try assists, a try, 2 line-break assists, a line break, 9 tackle busts and 2 offloads. He filled up the stat sheet in just about every category. No surprise that his form matched Penrith’s most complete game of the season so far.
Also, as a (sad) Parramatta fan, I’ve got to give credit to Blaize Talagi, who had his best game yet in a Panthers jersey. In my opinion, he’s made that No.6 jersey his own for the foreseeable future—scored a try and set up another in a classy performance.
Jack’s Dally M Votes
3 – Dylan Edwards
2 – Nathan Cleary
1 – Isaah Yeo
Aaron’s Dally M Votes
3 – Dylan Edwards
2 – Nathan Cleary
1 – Isaah Yeo
Let me know in the comments who your man of the match was.
As a pahs fan was good to watch. I reckon the biggest difference was the way Ivan used our forwards. Papali’i was awesome for us off the bench and starting with Henry who is a bit faster seems to match the speed of the game at the start. Letting Smith come off the bench and do his job once the game is a bit slower.
Roosters also had Butcher gone early with Gus out which played a big part but we will take any win we can right now! Up da pahs
Agree on all points, especially on Lindsay Smith, he’s gone to a new level this year and i am a big fan. Origin smokey?
In the chat for sure but with Daley back in charge who knows what the team will be