Panthers’ shot at critics
NRL champion Penrith has taken a swipe at critics for suggesting their season was “done” after losing to South Sydney in the first week of the finals.
As the Panthers celebrated the club’s third premiership into the early hours of Monday morning, cocaptain Isaah Yeo took to Instagram to remind everyone how the mountain men defied the experts’ predictions. Yeo posted a picture of a Fox League post, where journalist Paul Kent had suggested that Penrith “are done” after losing to the Rabbitohs in the qualifying final. The Panthers cocaptain included three face emojis with zippers over the mouth to suggest that actions speak louder than words.
Penrith back-rower Viliame Kikau also took a shot at the critics who thought the Panthers were “done”. Kikau posted a picture on his Instagram saying: “They’re done. #kenty” while sitting with the premiership trophy.
Inspired by players like the hardworking Yeo, Penrith pushed past multiple injury setbacks to lift the premiership trophy.
“Pretty much since the Origin period we’ve been backs against the wall a little bit,” Yeo said after the 14-12 grand final triumph over Souths. “We’ve never had the same team on the park for two weeks in a row, but I was always looking at it as a positive.
“We were just going to be so battle hardened if we got to this point.
“We’ve had some close games like Parramatta, and everyone wrote us off against the Storm just because of how much juice it took out of us.
“But we spoke about it at the start of the week, and we just felt so confident.
“Some players weren’t training, but that was happening for the past month as well, so we just felt like we were so ready to do it.”
Penrith’s charge to the premiership was particularly satisfying for coach Ivan Cleary following claims he was in danger of becoming the new Brian Smith of NRL coaching.
The Panthers coach had been second to Smith on an all-time list of coaches for most premiership games without winning a grand final win.