Revenge in sport is a desire to retaliate against, or punish a team or individual, for a past defeat, often leading to heightened competition or memorable moments.
I found that one on the internet, and to me it sums up Thursday night’s grand final rematch for the Storm perfectly.
I know for a fact that Melbourne players, coaches and everyone at the club are still burning from the grand final loss, and it’s been spoken about throughout the off-season.
Given Melbourne’s round one form where they hammered the Eels, Penrith’s form and injuries, and with revenge on the menu, it all points to a Storm victory. But, still, you can’t discount the Panthers’ incredible record as a development club.
And three plays in last year’s finals series, for three different tries against the Roosters, Sharks and Storm, are perfect examples of player development and synchronised coaching in action.
10,000 practices make the Panthers perfect
The beauty of these three plays is that they’re all the same shape and each one of them puts pressure on the defensive centre, isolates him and forces him to make a decision.
The best halves in the comp make players around them better.
In Penrith’s case, Nathan Cleary is watching the defensive centre each time they shift left and he reacts to that player’s movements. From these formations, Penrith can have five, six and seven different options to throw at the defence.
First, to the preliminary final against Cronulla last year, when scores were locked up after 20-odd minutes and the Panthers were on the attack.
Cleary goes to the line, and given Penrith’s attacking formation, he can dummy and go himself. Or he can hit the first ball-running option. He could hit his centre, Paul Alamoti, running a short line. He can play out the back to Dylan Edwards. He could kick for his winger. He can go long over the top to his winger with a harbour bridge pass. That’s six options right there.
Melbourne would normally have centre Nick Meaney and winger Will Warbrick as their right-edge defence. This week, Warbrick is out with lingering concussion symptoms, so it will be Grant Anderson outside Meaney.
In last year’s grand final, Cleary was able to hit centre Alamoti and draw in Meaney as Alamoti stopped and propped for a runaround.
Whenever you hit a forward or centre on that line, the defensive instinct is to stop – which enables Jarome Luai to swing around, catch and pass for Sunia Turuva to score. Luai and Turuva are no longer at Penrith, but the play still works with new faces filling the same roles. That is the real beauty of the Panthers system.
Two weeks earlier at home against the Roosters, it’s the same formation. But in this set-up, Luke Garner’s line is underneath Cleary and Alamoti is the lead runner.
The difference against the Roosters is Luai reacts to the movement of the defensive line: Sitili Tupouniua has been held back infield by Garner’s line, lead runner Alamoti drags Joey Manu the same way and Luai is able to step his way through.
The way Penrith played last year was with Cleary swinging either side of the field off the back of Isaah Yeo as a halfback, with Nathan the second wave of attack as a five-eighth, and splitting Luai on the left and Dylan Edwards on the right. Those two were the third layers of attack. This year it’s Jack Cole in the No.6 and this week, with Edwards and Daine Laurie out, Tom Jenkins has been named at the back.
The key to it all is the repetition that comes from running these plays from the age of 15.
Imagine at training, if they run those different variations a dozen times each ball-work session, then they’re honing it roughly 25 times a week. Do it all season, it’s 1000 times a year, and do that for 10 years, you’re talking 10,000 repetitions.
Then you have your younger players like Cole coming through the same system at Penrith, and it makes it so much easier for them to slip into the play, because they’re coached the same way out there at the Panthers Academy.
But a perfect Storm is brewing
Jahrome Hughes, Harry Grant and Cameron Munster make a lethal trio.Credit: Getty Images
With all that in mind, I still think the Storm’s round one demolition job on Parramatta was as fast and clinical as I’ve seen this group play. Their spine put their plays on at lightning pace and that will trouble Penrith’s edges this week.
Out wide – especially the combinations around Alamoti on the right edge – the Panthers were really poor in defence against the Roosters, and Cameron Munster will line up there this week. They’ll look to target that edge defence with Ryan Papenhuyzen floating around Munster. With Shawn Blore out there too, it’s a daunting mix of strike, speed and power.
As a team, the Panthers missed 46 tackles against the Roosters, compared to 35 against Cronulla the week before. I haven’t seen Penrith play or defend that poorly in a long time.
Ryan Papenhuyzen is a danger man in Thursday’s grand final rematch.Credit: Getty Images
I expect the Storm to target Yeo and try to hustle and bustle him into error by cutting down his time and space. If they can do that and limit his involvement, the Storm can then get to Cleary and try to do the same.
Penrith are a champion team with champion players, and they’ll look to grind the Storm out of it, as they did in last year’s grand final. I think they’ll back their ability to suffocate the Storm and rely on Cleary kicking into the corners.
Given Luai is no longer there with Nathan, and he’s up against Munster and Jahrome Hughes – who are both free of injury this year – the Panthers need a nine out of 10, or maybe a 10 out of 10, from Nathan to win.
The absence of Edwards really costs Penrith an extra forward, given his metres coming out of trouble, and on top of James Fisher-Harris leaving, it puts more responsibility on Moses Leota.
They’re vulnerable in that space now given Melbourne have Stefano Utoikamanu. Nelson Asofa-Solomona is also free to play and in Craig Bellamy’s squad, and I expect him to play.
Utoikamanu and Leota are play-one front-rowers, where they take the first run and take pride in doing it, getting a roll on for their team. I see Stefano in the Storm system improving out of sight, while it’s a big year for Moses to lead the Penrith pack.
I think it will be tight and grinding to start each half on Thursday night before the Storm strike with their brilliant spine as fatigue sets in.
Joey’s tip: Storm by 13-plus
First try-scorer: Xavier Coates
Man of the match: Cameron Munster
Tigers will only get better
A quick note on the Tigers and their own playmaking combinations. I thought they showed really good signs against Parramatta. It’s only early days, but they’ll get better and better. They won’t be in the bottom four, I guarantee you that.
I don’t think they’ll play finals this year, because the key for coach Benji Marshall is still winning the close games. They should’ve won a close one against Newcastle in round one, but these next two matches against the Dolphins (away) and the Warriors (home) are a great chance to bank early competition points and set up some consistent results.
Cherry ripe for a new deal
Manly should re-sign Daly Cherry-Evans for two more years.Credit: Getty Images
Meanwhile, I’d be giving Daly Cherry-Evans a two-year contract extension without hesitating.
Daly’s 36 and has only missed 23 Manly games in his entire career, nine of them because he was away in Queensland camp.
It just goes to show not only how durable he is, but also how smart he is about looking after himself and keeping himself available. I played with Jon Clarke at Warrington. He’s now Manly’s conditioning coach and he just marvels at DCE.
He said the coaches try to manage Daly’s workloads and involvement over summer, but they can’t. He just keeps going, refuses to drop out of training sessions and leads all their fitness drills.
The contract talks do go both ways, of course, and Daly will need to take a pay cut to keep Manly’s salary cap in good shape.
I don’t think he gets the raps he deserves and the way he’s going, he’ll play until he’s 40. I hope it’s as a one-club player, and if I’m Manly, I’d be signing him to make it happen.
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
