‘Wasn’t respectful’: Kimmorley calls out Panthers for resting seven Origin stars against Tigers

Tigers coach Brett Kimmorley believes the Panthers were disrespectful to rest seven Origin stars for their Round 18 clash.

Brett Kimmorley believes the Panthers were disrespectful to rest so many players.

Tigers coach Brett Kimmorley believes the Panthers were disrespectful to rest seven Origin stars for their Round 18 clash and revealed he is unsure if he will be at the club next season.

In the week the Tigers confirmed Tim Sheens, Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah will be the new coaching team, the club went down 18-16 to a Panthers team missing seven regular starters.

“They are a really good organisation that are entitled to rest their players, but we thought it wasn’t respectful,” Kimmorley said.

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“But it got us up, which helped us as well. That is something you have got to use as a coach about how you get your players up.

“We had the chance to win it. The challenge now is to make sure that we don’t fall off the cliff a little bit and compete again next week and we will get that win eventually.”

Kimmorley was pressed on why he thought the Panthers were disrespectful to rest so many players, despite coming up against the last placed Tigers.

“Um … as I said they are the premiers and their guys are playing big minutes, but they were the only club that rested their players before the team sheet came out,” Kimmorley said.

“My job as a coach is to be a story teller and I used that for us during the week.

Brett Kimmorley believes the Panthers were disrespectful to rest so many players.

“They can do whatever they want, so I don’t want you to make a headline that I am disrespecting what Penrith are doing.

“I needed to be able to sell the story to my players about how we can get up this week and that is my role as a coach.

“Sometimes it is not black and white. Sometimes you need to say some things that create a story and a reason why we are going to prove people wrong.

“That was a bit of a journey I went on this week. Obviously we got a good fight and we got a chance to win a game of football.

“As I said, they can do whatever they want and they are entitled to do that with what they have done and their success over the last two or three years and the amount of players that played Origin.

“We look at each week about the journey and the challenges and how we are going to get up each week and build a story. Then we build a game plan and we build an opportunity to go from whistle to whistle and see if we are good enough.”

AAP’s Scott Bailey said on Twitter it was a “ridiculous comment” from Kimmorley.

“Premierships are won in September and October, not July. If Cleary, Luai, Api or Yeo got injured in a game just a few days after an Origin decider, it’d be disrespectful to the value of a premiership in risking them in a Rd 18 game they can afford to lose.

Kimmorley was frank in his response to the question of where he will be next season after the appointment of Sheens, Marshall and Farah.

“No and that’s the funny world of rugby league,” he said.

Originally published as ‘Wasn’t respectful’: Kimmorley calls out Panthers for resting seven Origin stars against Tigers