good game alright
After last night i have moved on Penrith. Nathan Cleary is not their most important player (no matter what Ch9 would have you believe) it's the part time accountant, full time work horse Isaah Yeo. He is in the middle of what makes Penrith good.
Effectively Penrith beat you with pressure. Their game is to pin you in your end, wear you down, and then pounce on the inevitable error. Their entire team is full of metre eaters, and Yeo is in the middle of it, either taking another 10m run, or ball playing to someone else to make 15m. This puts them in a position for a high kick, which has you again working out of a corner. And then it's linespeed, gang tackles, and slow play the balls. You make 30m and kick. rinse repeat until you fuck up. And then they'll wear you down for a try, or one of their strike runners will find a mismatch. It's incredibly effective, basic and brutal football.
And Yeo is in the middle of it. He leads the line. He organises the middle attack. Makes a thousand tackles, slows down every play the ball. He's an absolute weapon.
Penrith can be beaten. That linespeed does gas them at times during teh game, and if you are brave like Souths were, you can outflank them early. But you have to be prepared for the game to be high pressure for 80 minutes. And you have to not panic when they have you under the pump. There are not many teams in the comp who can do that.
Clubs should be intent on stealing Penrith's strength and conditioning coach, and their defense coach. You can go a long way in the NRL with those two (of course it also helps if you have Koroisau, Kikau, Edwards, May, To'o etc to give the opposition defense kittens when you have the ball)