We’re only three games into the season and there are already plenty of rugby league experts writing Penrith off after one win and two losses.
So this week, I’m going to look at the questions, whether 2025 is a ‘retooling’ year for the club? And can the team win a fifth premiership in a row?
Just to clarify, the term ‘retooling’ means to ‘change something in order to improve it’.
Now there are plenty of reasons why Penrith narrowly lost to Melbourne last Thursday. The best player in the game, Nathan Cleary, went down with a ‘category one’ head injury after just eight minutes.
This then forced a reshuffle which saw two inexperienced twenty-year-olds in Jack Cole (21) and Blaize Talagi (20), who had never played in a game together, to form a scrum base duo against arguably the best spine in the competition.
In the end, the strong culture embedded in the club came to the fore and against all odds the team almost came away with a stunning come-from behind victory.
The truth is, the team is still trying to find a five-eighth who can form a potent and permanent combination with Nathan Cleary.
There are plenty of options but for now, it looks like the club will run with Jack Cole at five-eighth with a hungry and talented Blaize Talagi hot on his heels.
The other big problem coach Cleary must address is the side’s awful defence, which is by far the worst it has been since 2019. It has already leaked 90 points in three-rounds at an average of 30 points per game.
Again, there are reasons why the defence is poor but I’m tired of excuses which leads us back to the question; Is 2025 a ‘retooling’ year for the club and can it still win a fifth consecutive title?
My answer to both questions is, yes, but not if the current trajectory of the team continues.
I know I’m sitting on the fence here but the sample size of three games is just too small to make a definitive statement.
In my opinion, it is a ‘retooling’ year but that’s not a negative thing, and it certainly doesn’t mean the team is in for a bad season.
On the contrary, I believe the club will still make the top four but unless the team can find a permanent five-eighth and patch up its leaky defence, it will not get to the big dance, let alone win it.
After the loss to the Storm, coach Ivan Cleary admitted that the back-up players in key positions were young this year but watching them grinding it out and performing like they did against the Storm will only strengthen the likes of Cole and Talagi for the future.
There is so much talent in both Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup this year, which is developing nicely.
This is the season where more than a few young players will mature and gain valuable first grade experience while Ivan and the coaching staff figure out the side’s best combinations moving forward.
The culture at Panthers is too strong for the team to stay down for too long and give up hope of winning another premiership this early on in the season.
It’s simply not the Penrith way.
Peter Lang
Peter Lang is an experienced sports writer, who has been covering rugby league for several decades. He first wrote Lang on League for the Weekender in the 1990s, and worked for Panthers on its famous Panthers Magazine for several years.