Penrith’s finals hopes take almighty hit after 16-8 loss to Canterbury
A shock loss to Canterbury could prove a giant blow for the Panthers, who had previously won seven of eight games to revive their season.
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Penrith’s hopes of playing in the finals have taken an almighty hit with a 16-8 loss to the 15th-placed Bulldogs as Dallin Watene-Zelezniak haunted his former club.
The eight-point loss is a giant blow for the Panthers, who had previously won seven of eight games to revive their season. They led by a penalty at half-time but were held scoreless in the final 40 minutes.
With the game on the line, young Bulldogs five-eighth Jack Cogger split through the Panthers defensive line to slam the ball down to gain the lead.
There were question marks on the grounding but the Bunker controversially ruled he had maintained possession of the ball – however Panthers coach Ivan Cleary refused to blame the officials.
“It was a close one. I’ll need to take a closer look at it,” Cleary said after the game.
“We invited them into a scrap and they won the scrap. We got frustrated and we couldn’t capitalize.
“We didn’t play well enough, especially in defence. We couldn’t build enough pressure. I thought we lacked a lot of polish.”
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DWZ’s PAINFUL REMINDER
New Bulldogs fullback Dallin Watene-Zelezniak had a game to remember as he faced his former club for the first time since his ugly departure from the club a couple of months ago.
Having started the year at the foot of the mountains, the New Zealand captain had a falling out at the club and found himself at Belmore.
The St Clair Comets junior had an impressive outing as he ran for 132 metres and recorded four tackle breaks and a line-break assist.
But his biggest play of the night came in defence. With the game on the line, Watene-Zelezniak produced a stunning try-saver when he managed to stop Panthers forward Liam Martin just metres out from the line.
“He was great,” Bulldogs coach Dean Pay said of the former Panther.
“Dal set our standards with how hard he runs. He’s been terrific for us – not only on the field but off the field he’s been terrific. He’s enjoying his footy and it showed tonight.”
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ATTACK STRUGGLES
If the Panthers want to have any hope of giving the competition a shake this season, they’ve got to work on their attack.
They may have been able to turn their season around but their attack still isn’t clicking as they average the third fewest points in the NRL.
They looked lost in attack all night as representative halves James Maloney and Nathan Cleary managed to spark little in a scrappy performance.
“(Our attack) has been our Achilles heel all year … we weren’t able to capitalize on anything. Lots of near misses but that’s been the tale of our season,” the Panthers coach said.
“It was a frustrating night. We haven’t offered enough this year. Full credit to their defence.”
DOGS PUT UP A FIGHT
It wasn’t pretty but the Bulldogs proved why they are the ‘dogs of war’ with a gutsy performance.
Even when Aiden Tolman spent 10 minutes in the sin bin for a professional foul on Panthers prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard, the Bulldogs held their line firm and didn’t concede a try with a man short.
“We’re still going to have our ups and downs. We still have the youngest squad but it was a step in the right direction. Hopefully we can see more of that,” Pay said.
“We’ve had a tough season but we want to be a top four side and that’s what we’re aiming to do that. We just want to keep improving. Whatever happens in the next five weeks, we want to take into next year.”
Finals hopes are out of the equation but it was an effort to be proud of.
CANTERBURY 16 (J Cogger N Meaney R Smith tries K Holland 2 goals) bt PENRITH 8 (B Naden try N Cleary 2 goals) at Bankwest Stadium. Referee: Ben Cummins, Belinda Sharpe. Crowd: 10,062.
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