Penrith sunk to their lowest ebb in recent memory on Saturday night with the four-time champions condemned to the bottom of the NRL ladder by the struggling Newcastle Knights.
Coming off a bye, the Panthers had improved since their horror start to the season, winning twice and fighting out a draw for five valuable competition points from their past four matches, but were never in the hunt tonight.
Missing Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo, Dylan Edwards, Brian To’o and Liam Martin as they prepare for battle for the Blues on Wednesday night, and with Luke Garner and Isaiah Papali’i out injured, the Panthers rolled out only seven members from last year’s grand final-winning team.
MATCH CENTRE: Penrith Panthers vs Newcastle Knights live scores, teams, videos
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Yet still, coach Ivan Cleary would have expected a better showing from his troops.
The Knight’s meanwhile had entered the clash in utter disarray, having won just one of their last eight games, and were without star fullback Kalyn Ponga and injured trio Bradman Best, Jacob Saifiti and Greg Marzhew.
But a sizzling attacking display from Fletcher Sharpe and a three try effort from powerhouse backrower Dylan Lucas led them to a 25-6 victory at a sold out Carrington Park in Bathurst, snapping a 10-game losing streak against the Panthers.
Sharpe was impossible to catch, making four line breaks and 18 tackle busts, while running for 284 metres. Lucas was too hot to handle, especially in the first half, splitting the line three times and scoring a maiden career hattrick.
Winning coach Adam O’Brien said despite all the external noise about his side’s form and his coaching future, the Knights were a united club.
“We’re a tight knit playing group, staff, myself, the other coaches, all our staff, are connected to our leaders and then our whole squad,” O’Brien said.
“We’ve shared tough times before together and we’ve learned, so this isn’t anything new to us and we knew that by being united, that’s our best chance and we’re not out of it yet.
“There’ll be more written about us at some point, we’ve just got to focus on putting in more performances like that, more often.”
O’Brien delighted with Knights attitude | 05:51
It took less than five minutes for Newcastle to open the scoring when regular five eighth Sharpe, playing at fullback in the absence of Origin-bound Ponga, muscled his way over.
Lucas powered over inside ten minutes to give the Knights a 12-0 lead and when the hulking backrower crossed again 90 seconds later, the reigning premiers were staring down the barrel of an embarrassing shellacking.
When Panthers backrower Liam Henry was sin binned and put on report for a crusher tackle in the 23rd minute, the floodgates looked set to explode, and Lucas had his third in 15 minutes.
“First hattrick of the career of Dylan Lucas. Incredible, what a crazy year,” Andrew Voss said.
He almost bagged a fourth a minute before halftime after a 40m break, only to drop the ball over the line and at the break the Knights led 24-0.
To their credit, the Panthers tried valiantly in the second half as the Knights descended into mediocrity, but the game was put to bed in the opening 40 minutes.
Post match Cleary stated the obvious, ruing the Penrith’s opening half display.
“I’m just a bit disappointed with the start,” Cleary said.
“We just got overrun at the start of the game and in a game like this one, we’re obviously down on troops, it’s the worst start we could find.
“So, confidence was down early. It was a pretty tough night.
“I was much happier in the second half, but it would have been really nice to have seen that in the first half.”
Read below for the biggest talking points out of the clash!
Bicep blow
In a first half of highlights for the Knights there was also some disappointment with Adam Elliott suffering a serious arm injury.
Elliott tore his bicep midway through the period and could be out for 10-12 weeks.
It is a massive blow for the middle forward, who has missed plenty of footy over the last few years with a serious groin injury in 2023 and multiple calf-related issues at the end of last season and earlier this year.
Old-school CRUSHER – Henry sent for 10 | 00:42
Brave Bryan
Meanwhile Newcastle debutant Paul Bryan suffered a dislocated shoulder on his first involvement in the game but courageously played on, despite being in excruciating pain.
The rookie somehow put the shoulder back into place himself and bravely continued for the remaining six minutes of the opening half before receiving treatment in the break and returning for the first seven minutes of the second stanza.
Called into the side on match day for Kiwi international Leo Thompson, who withdrew suffering from a gastro virus, Bryan’s parents made the last-minute dash from Mackay in Queensland to watch their 22-year-old son achieve a dream.
O’Brien was full of praise for Bryan’s resolution.
“It was out for a while and then he managed to get it back in himself, and then stayed on there, and then it went out again and he said ‘no’, I’ll get off at halftime,” the coach said.
“So, they worked on him at halftime and then he went back on. So that’s incredible.
“He’s only a young man and a big future when you get a mindset like that and that’s probably what helped us all night, everybody’s carrying something out there, and they just fought hard for each other.”
Tago terrorised
Ivan Cleary made a host of changes to his team before kickoff, moving Izack Tago into the second row and adding Jesse McLean into the backline for just his third NRL appearance and first of the season.
Teenage forward Harrison Hassett came onto the bench for his NRL debut and scored Penrith’s only try with just his third touch of the ball.
The Tago experiment didn’t work with the three-time premiership winning centre making just one run in the first half, while struggling to contain the whirlwind that was Lucas.
He was more involved in attack when he re-entered the game midway through the second half, but the damage was done.
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TEAMS
Panthers team: 1. Daine Laurie 2. Paul Alamoti 4. Casey McLean 5. Thomas Jenkins 20. Jesse McLean 6. Blaize Talagi 7. Brad Schneider 8. Moses Leota 9. Mitch Kenny 10. Matt Eisenhuth 3. Izack Tago 12. Liam Henry 13. Lindsay Smith 11. Preston Riki 14. Luke Sommerton 16. Luron Patea 21. Harrison Hassett. 18th man: 17. Jack Cole
Knights team: 1. Fletcher Sharpe 2. James Schiller 3. Dane Gagai 4. Kyle McCarthy 5. Fletcher Hunt 6. Tyson Gamble 7. Jack Cogger 8. Tyson Frizell 9. Phoenix Crossland 16. Brodie Jones 11. Dylan Lucas 12. Kai Pearce-Paul 13. Adam Elliott 14. Jayden Brailey 15. Mathew Croker 17. Thomas Cant 19. Paul Bryan. 18th man: 20. Matthew Arthur
