Panthers overcome Rabbitohs for shot at consecutive premierships

The Penrith Panthers have beaten the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the second preliminary final of the 2022 NRL Finals series to book their ticket to the Grand Final with western Sydney rivals the Parramatta Eels on the first Sunday of October.

Many pundits highlighted the South Sydney Rabbitohs discipline as their key to victory. Despite this, the Rabbitohs were able to over come five errors and five incomplete sets to gain early ascendancy before the Panthers struck back late in the first half.

All eyes were on the key match up of Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary on Rabbitohs fullback Latrell Mitchell early. The plan of Cleary was evident as a combination of bombs and torpedo kicks mixed with low trajectory chip kicks were used to isolate Mitchell and tire him early.

Physicality was again the highlight of the opening stanza of this preliminary final with heavy contact highlighted by an enormous hit from Panthers forward Moses Leota that knocked the wind out of Mitchell on a kick return.

The Rabbitohs were given a leg up by Jarome Luai after he held back Lachlan Ilias which denied the Penrith Panthers what would have been the crucial opening try of the match. Instead, the Rabbitohs were able to force their way down the field before an incredible run wide of the ruck by Dolphin bound Mark Nicholls was able to force an offload that resulted in a try to Cody Walker.

Nathan Cleary responded to the mid-week challenge of Rabbitohs winger Taane Milne and sent up a massive spiral bomb in his direction. Milne went on to drop the ball, which was gathered by Viliame Kikau, passed on to Jarome Luai who was able to throw a long cut out pass to Charlie Staines who crossed the line on the other side of the field.

In spectacular fashion, the NRL bunker deemed Luai gained an advantage by running behind a team mate before throwing the cut-out pass and gained an advantage in the play. The try was disallowed.

The Panthers again found themselves on the bad side of the NRL bunker when a Kikau try was disallowed following a knock on by teammate Izack Tago.

Finally, the Panthers apparent bad luck was broken off the back of NSW Origin hooker Api Koroisau’s individual try to put the Panthers on the scoreboard. The Kikau run in the lead up looked to end in Kikau taking out the Rabbitohs markers to pave the way for Koroisau to score, however, this was overlooked.

The Panthers used that try to propel themselves to a half time lead when Brian To’o capitalised on an interception that led to an 80m try. To’o took the intercept from a Campbell Graham fumble before he bowled over Walker and ultimately Ilias to score and close out the first half.

The second half began again with the back-and-forth battle in the middle before a Kikau charge down would lead to a Panthers try. Cleary placed a precision grubber kick behind the Rabbitohs defensive line that Koroisau would ultimately chase and score from to give Panthers the lead.

The Panthers again doubled down on scoring plays when Luai overcame his issues with discipline to attack the line and put a sharp grubber kick in behind the defensive line. Tago was the man to come up with the ball to break a six game try scoring draught and put the Panthers two converted tries in front.

The wheels looked to be fall off for the Rabbitohs as they attacked but shifted too wide, pushing Richie Kennar out of the field of play, only to be backed up by a loose arm from Walker that collected Cleary high, pushing the Panthers deep into the Rabbitohs half.

The Rabbitohs continued to be their own worst enemy as Milne delivered a sickening head high shot that sent Spencer Leniu for his second head injury assessment of the evening. Milne was sent off for the careless tackle that looked to be the final nail in the coffin of the Rabbitohs season.

As all good captains do, Cleary stood up in the dying minutes to cement the Panthers spot in the 2022 NRL Grand Final with a solo kick and chase try that gave the Panthers a win that didn’t seem likely for a majority of the first half of this match.

The Panthers will go on to face the Eels on Sunday the 2nd of October at 6:30pm. The Panthers will be hoping to win their second premiership in a row, while the Eels will be looking to break the longest standing premiership draught in the NRL.

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