By Phil Lutton
Want to see a magic trick in Magic Round? Titans forward Herman Ese’ese made himself disappear with the most ludicrous play of the NRL season as the perfect Panthers made it 10 straight wins on the back of a 48-12 pummelling of an increasingly impotent Gold Coast.
Not content with the sight of his side already being belted 24-0 just three minutes before half-time, Ese’ese saw fit to charge out of the defensive line, from an offside position, and coathanger Panthers winger Brian To’o with a high and dangerous swinging arm.
It was if Ese’ese had been in another dimension until just before kick-off and missed a weekend of zero tolerance from referees, which had already seen a pair of send-offs and some 14 sin-binnings, one of which was Penrith’s Moses Leota in the 15th minute for a clumsy and late effort on Titans half Jamal Fogarty.
This was a red card every week, regardless of interpretations and edicts from head office, and it should be marked as unforgivable by Titans coach Justin Holbrook given the context of Magic Round and the already precarious position on the scoreboard.
“We were the last game. We had all the time in the world to get our house in order. It was just a completely reckless decision on his behalf and we paid the price for it,” Holbrook said. “It was high and reckless but he didn’t mean it... we hadn’t scored, we had it on their line.
“But we spoke about it as a team. I don’t think he’d have an answer either. It definitely hurt us.”
Herman Ese’ese is confronted by the Panthers before his sending-off at Suncorp Stadium.Credit: Getty
But he has bigger problems at a supposed boom club that is struggling badly to live up to the pre-season expectations he openly welcomed. They had conceded some 140 points in the previous four rounds leading up to their clash with the clinical Panthers and Sunday’s 48 takes that into embarrassing territory.
They recruited David Fifita, who has been terrific, but he is suspended, while Tino Fa’asuamaleaui would want to hope Maroons coach Paul Green wasn’t watching too closely as he failed to aim up against Penrith’s gun middles like James Fisher-Harris.
There is a gulf as deep as the Mariana Trench between Penrith and most sides in the competition but it spoke volumes about their mentality when they were down to 12 men in the first half as Leota cooled his jets.
The Titans were looking reasonably sound at that stage and were entitled to think this was their way into the match to see if they could rattle the cage of the unbeaten grand finalists. Instead, Nathan Cleary took over, saved a try at one end, scored one at the other and started the train in motion.
Nathan Cleary scored a hat-trick in Penrith’s 10th consecutive victory.Credit: Getty
Fisher-Harris smashed his way over four minutes later to make it two tries for Penrith while they were a player short, while they managed to hold the ball for nine out of the 10 minutes of Leota’s sin-binning. Gold Coast never looked like recovering and only managed to find some flow late in the second half when the result was a foregone conclusion.
“I thought the best we played was when we had 12 men. We kept it simple,” Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said. “I was disappointed with the last 20. We had a really good try that got disallowed and it took the wind out of our sails a little bit. There’s actually a few things to work on out of that game.”
The younger Cleary was wondrous again. He ended up with three tries and the final one, in the dying minutes, was his best. He is known for his crisp skills but this one was pure heart and toughness as he fought his way through defenders to scramble to the line. He just wanted it more.
There were some statement performances at Magic Round and Penrith had to wait and watch before they were let loose in the final match. They took care of business in customary fashion and, like their main premiership rivals Melbourne, have made a habit of not losing the ones they should win.
Things may get more interesting for Penrith next week when they take on the Rabbitohs in Dubbo. Souths will be bolstered by the returning Latrell Mitchell and they will need a giant performance by their star fullback to be able to compete with a side that seems destined for another decider.
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