Panthers coach Ivan Cleary had an issue with the second last try as he tried to dissect how his team let a late eight point lead slip in their 20-18 loss to Souths.
The Panthers led 18-10 after Stephen Crichton converted his hat-trick try in the 72nd minute only for Souths to score twice through Latrell Mitchell and Isaiah Tass at the death to snatch a comeback victory, which left Cleary struggling for words in his post match press conference.
“Can you help me?” Cleary said when asked how he would sum up the game.
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“Yeah it is a cruel game sometimes. Where do you want me to start?
“It is a big question. I don’t know.”
Cleary believes the bounce of the ball went against his side at times, particularly with the second last try to Mitchell, which came off a bat back from Cody Walker from a Lachlan Ilias kick.
“I just thought it was the bounce of the ball a bit tonight, I mean the second last try was very dubious I would have thought,” Cleary said.
“But again it is a collection of moments throughout the game. It is not just one play.
“I thought they probably won the big moments tonight.”
Souths’ lethal left edge produced the match winning try at the death, with Cleary conceding the Rabbitohs’ star playmakers stepped up when the game was on the line.
“We knew that was exactly what they were going to do,” Cleary said.
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“I thought we kind of covered it and then just didn’t quite wrap the ball up.
“I thought they were really good tonight. Their skilled players came up with some big plays really going for it.
“We played them a few weeks back and they probably weren’t coming up with the plays on that night.
“Tonight they did. There were some real key moments in the game. Six-agains on last tackle and winning the ball back of kicks. I don’t know, to their credit they got a few of those.
“It could have gone either way, but it doesn’t feel any better when I say that.”
Regardless of the loss, Cleary was much happier with his side’s performance after putting in their worst display of the year in his eyes against the Knights in a 16-15 golden point win last week.
“Like I said to the boys wins and losses come and go, but what you are made of and the culture of our club I’m still very proud of it and tonight was no different,” Cleary said.
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“We played much better than last week, which we needed to. It was a great game.
“Someone’s got to win and I couldn’t begrudge them the victory tonight either.
“Like I said it could have gone either way. We have had a few this year now, but we are proving hard to beat and playing well for the most part, so I’m happy in that sense.”
Cleary was pleased with the effort of all his players, but conceded they should have iced the game from eight points up with eight minutes to play.
“I can’t really think of a bad player,” Cleary said.
“It was a great game. I thought they played really well.
“But when you are up by eight inside 10 minutes to go you like to think you would sew it up.
“But then again if there is one team you don’t want to be playing when they are like that tonight it is probably Souths.”
Panthers skipper was asked about the last try to Tass, but conceded Souths were the better team in the big moments.
“No we were just trying to get the time off,” Yeo said of his chat with the referee after Tass’ 79th minute try.
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“Like Ivan touched on that was one of the bigger moments, so it was a really good contest. I felt like there was a lot more live football and it was an end to end contest.
“For the most part I thought we were holding pretty well in that, but there was a few key moments particularly in the last five or 10 minutes that you would like back and obviously they were too good tonight, so credit to them.”
Cleary revealed son Nathan didn’t kick for goal due to an injury suffered at training the day before the game, while winger Sunia Turuva had suffered ankle injury during the game.
“He just had a bit of a twinge goal kicking yesterday, so that is why he didn’t do that,” Cleary said.
“Turuva has an ankle injury, but I don’t have an update.”
On a bright note Crichton again nearly came back to haunt Souths scoring all 18 points for Penrith in his best game of the season.
“He has certainly had some big performances in big games, so he was very good tonight,” Cleary said.
