Penrith have edged towards another minor premiership and all but ended Canterbury’s faint finals chances with a 24-10 victory over the Bulldogs at CommBank Stadium on Friday night.
In an ominous signal to their title rivals, the Panthers pushed two competition points clear of the New Zealand Warriors and the Sydney Roosters with a dominant display.
Liam Martin scored twice, and Dylan Edwards was everywhere as the hosts proved too strong for a Bulldogs outfit who would have been certainties for the top eight had they played like this every week rather than be almost certain to miss out.
Just weeks after losing to the Warriors and Roosters in successive weeks, Ivan Cleary’s men are a good chance to secure a fourth minor premiership in seven years. They face the Wests Tigers in the final round at the same venue next weekend.
“I felt like that was our best 80 minutes for some time and had to be,” Cleary snr said.
While Izack Tago left the venue in a knee brace and will have scans over the weekend, first-choice centre Paul Alamoti (hamstring) is expected to be available again as early as next week while hooker Mitch Kenny (leg) is also closing in on a return.
They will be positive reinforcements but the outlook is still unclear for absent lock and captain Isaah Yeo, who is recovering from a pectoral injury.
“Yeoey is the question mark still. But he’s ticking a lot of boxes,” Cleary snr said.
Asked whether Yeo would be back for the first week of the finals, he replied: “I don’t know.”
Defeat for Cameron Ciraldo’s team leaves them stranded in ninth place. They are two points behind South Sydney and North Queensland, who both have a game in hand.
Halfback Lachlan Galvin could be pleased with his performance, setting up two tries as he lined up opposite Nathan Cleary, but the class divide between the sides proved too wide.
“It’s disappointing because if we played like that in the first 11 rounds we wouldn’t be sitting here in this situation,” Ciraldo said.
With the Bulldogs playing for their season and the Panthers eyeing another top-two finish, there was a lot on the line in Parramatta and the stakes were reflected by a sudden-death style intensity.
Left licking their wounds after a 16-point defeat to Canterbury in round six, Penrith gave the impression from the outset that they wanted to re-assert their authority.
Smothering the Bulldogs with oppressive defence, they coalesced to heave Erani Tuala and then fellow winger Jacob Kiraz across the sidelines from well infield in separate demonstrations of force in the opening 20 minutes.
The gang tackles both featured Panthers enforcer-in-chief Martin and came either side of a try to the second rower that put the hosts in front.
Canterbury did well to absorb the pressure and hit back in a ding-dong first half when Matt Burton capitalised on an expertly directed pass from Galvin.
Burton almost had a second soon before the break, only to be fractionally beaten to a kick by Edwards and then flattened by a head clash with the Penrith fullback for good measure.
The former Panthers centre returned to the field after a concussion assessment, and at only four points behind, the Bulldogs were still in the fight.
However, the road to victory became a lot steeper when play resumed, and Connor Tracey spilled a Cleary bomb.
Martin, the first on the scene, took advantage, collecting the loose ball nonchalantly with his right hand before scoring between the posts.
A pair of Cleary penalty goals made the margin even more challenging for Canterbury to navigate.
But the Bulldogs refused to buckle, and with 19 minutes remaining they closed the gap to six when Galvin’s dummy and pass sent the re-signed Jacob Preston over.
But when Cleary booted another penalty and then gambled and ran the ball on the last tackle soon after, they could not hold on, with Casey McLean seizing on weary defenders.
For Canterbury, there was no coming back from there.
