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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2791784, member: 1899"] Penrith Panthers Ordinarily you'd look at a side like Penrith and consider them a lock for the Top 4 but there's two issues at play here. First off, they're Penrith, they're nothing but inconsistent. Last year marked their 3rd finals appearance in 12 seasons and even looking back on this side they've never been the club that has enjoyed sustained success. The other is a name we're all familiar with, Anthony Griffin. Griffin only has one Top 4 credit next to his name and that was his first year as a senior coach. Despite showing all the promise in the world in 2011, the Broncos never found their footing under Hook and became also-rans for the bulk of his tenure. It's these two reasons that make me sketchy on the Panthers and their ability to grow from last season. If they manage to dispel those concerns, it will be on the back of their power game. Not only do they have some massive forwards on their roster, backs like Josh Mansour and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak are workhorses and tend to get the set rolling from the word go. If they can tighten their game and limit their mistakes through forced passes or unnecessary offloads they could turn a lot of those close eight point losses into wins. On the flipside if they continue to play hot potato football and fail to work on their defence I could see the Panthers struggling to make the eight altogether. While big forwards can be helpful, if they fail to adapt to the current interchange scheme it could be for naught with teams coming out with effective counters. Just an inside pass here or a quick dummy half scurry could be enough to catch the Panthers out. At this stage, I've got the Panthers stagnating. They'll be hyped up as one of the teams to watch out for, only to dish out the same brand of football as last season. The only difference here is I expect them to be patchy through out the year instead of going on one redeeming run to save their season. [/QUOTE]

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