DEFENCE KEY FOR PANTHERS
PANTHERS coach Ivan Cleary admits his side needs to improve their attitude in defence to stay in the hunt for an NRL finals berth against the Cowboys at in Round 23 at 1300SMILES Stadium tomorrow night.
While North Queensland’s top eight hopes are done and dusted this season, the ninthplaced Panthers (10-11) are still within striking distance if they can win their last three matches.
Townsville has traditionally been a happy hunting ground for the Panthers, who have won five of their past six games at 1300SMILES Stadium, but they have struggled for consistency in recent weeks.
The Panthers won seven straight games from
Rounds 11 to 18 this season, but have since lost three of their past four including last weekend’s 24-12 defeat in Brisbane. – Defence was a major issue for Penrith against the Broncos — missing 45 tackles — and Cleary conceded their effort “wasn’t good enough”.
“First two trips they went down our end they scored so we just couldn’t build any pressure through a culmination of mistakes in the second half,” he said.
“I didn’t feel like we were ever really threatened in terms of the shape they ran, but we were just missing tackles.
“They’ve got a lot of powerful guys — tackle breakers — in their team.
“So that’s going to happen, but a lot of them were early in the game when we kept turning the ball over and they were fresh.
“We have a lot of work to do defensively in that area.
“Some team stuff and system stuff has definitely gotten better this year I feel, but you can’t be conceding points as easily in the second half as we did.”
Cleary described the Panthers as “immature” after the Broncos loss given their relatively young squad, but he insisted they could still make a late run at the finals, starting with a win against the Cowboys.
“We’ve just got to dust ourselves off and get up to Townsville,” Cleary said.
“We’ve got to make sure we put on a good display and get the points there. That’s the idea and then we’ll see where we sit after that.
“A lot’s going to happen in the next three weeks.
“All we can control is our own performance and so that’s what we’ll be doing.”