Panthers are back after crushing Sea Eagles in 43-year ‘smash up’
The Penrith Panthers have entered the building for the 2023 NRL season after handing the Manly Sea Eagles a hiding few have seen before.
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The Penrith Panthers are officially back to their barnstorming best, blowing the Manly Sea Eagles away in a 44-12
Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards is no longer flying under the radar, scoring a massive four tries, including a hat-trick in the first half.
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Incredibly, the Panthers led 32-0 with five tries to zero in the first half.
The halftime drubbing was the biggest scoreline the Sea Eagles had conceded in the State of Origin era, dating back to 1980.
“They’ve been blown off the park, there’s no other way to describe it,” Warren Smith said just before halftime.
Michael Ennis added: “It’s been a walk in the park. From the opening set, Penrith came out with a point to prove. They have been relentless, absolutely relentless.
“It has been a demolition from the reigning premiers.”
After the break, Smith added that the stats were “so lopsided, I don’t know if we’ve seen the likes of them before”.
The Panthers had 73 per cent of the possession, nine line breaks to zero, 900 run metres to 257 and missed just two tackles to the Sea Eagles’ 28.
Ennis added: “I’m absolutely blown away by it. It’s been a super smash up, an absolute demolition derby.”
Whether it was the Panthers easing off the accelerator or the Sea Eagles aiming up, the visitors avoided total embarrassment, drawing the second half at 12-all, only when the Panthers scored right on the siren.
But the damage had already been done.
Cooper Cronk said that while it wasn’t a complete blow out, it was all one way traffic.
“It was a demolition from Penrith,” he said. “Every player felt like they had an impact on the game. On the other side, there wasn’t really a player on Manly’s side that had an impact on the contest.”
Edwards, who also had 18 runs for 187m via four line breaks and a line break assist as well as his four tries, downplayed his performance.
“Scoring four tries is always nice but it’s on the back of all that work up the field,” he said.
“I just got lucky with a couple of them ones where I just had to pretty much cross over the line.”
The sleeping Panthers have well and truly been awoken however.
After scoring 12 points, 16 points and 16 points in their first three matches of the season, the Panthers exploded last week to scored 40 second half points in a 53-12 drubbing of the Raiders, and now 44 against the Sea Eagles.
And potentially even scarier, Nathan Cleary said his coach and father Ivan wouldn’t have been happy with the second half.
“It was pretty ugly in the second half,” he said. “The way we played that first half, I thought it was a good opportunity for us to kick on and play a full 80 minutes.
“Ill-discipline, drop balls, stuff like that. But if you told me we’d won with this scoreline at the start of the game I’d have been pretty happy.”
Originally published as Panthers are back after crushing Sea Eagles in 43-year ‘smash up’
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