“C’mon boys let’s keep it going!”
You could hear young Panthers prop Liam Henry urging the troops on after veteran Scott Sorensen leapt in the air to catch a cross-field bomb launched by halfback Brad Schneider.
Sorensen caught the ball then twisted his body and planted it right next to the uprights, to take the Panthers to a 14-12 lead over the Warriors following an easy conversion by Paul Alamoti.
Sorensen could then be seen laying down the law to some of his less experienced teammates as they huddled around following his try.
Yep, that’s right, this was a real backs-to-the-wall team effort.
Both the young bull and the experienced campaigner could smell that an upset was on the cards.
Both had a voice, and both were being heard by their teammates. No one’s voice was more important than the other. It was democracy in action, and it eventually led to a much needed 28-18 victory.

For the first time in 15 weeks, the Panthers were back in the Top 8.
Minus five Origin players, Penrith were supposed to be ‘cannon-fodder’ for the high-flying Warriors, who were expected to trounce their less-experienced opposition.
If the Panthers were going to win, they had to make sure everything went their way – it didn’t! They had to make sure they made no mistakes – they made mistakes!
But they didn’t let any of this rattle them.
They had to defend their goal line like their life depended on it – and they did!
Penrith’s goal line defence was back. It repelled wave after wave of Warriors attack.
In the first half of the season, the Panthers were so out-of-sync they couldn’t defend a crowd wave.
But against the Warriors it was like the Penrith of old.
On this night several players came of age.
Luron Patea made three tackle breaks and off-loaded the ball twice in traffic, meanwhile Casey McLean set up a try and ran 118 metres, and Blaize Talagi scored a try, set up another and made three tackle-breaks.
It reminded me of a game way back in Round 20, 1996, when an injury decimated Panthers side rolled out three 18-year-olds named Craig Gower, Fred Petersen and Ned Catic and then went on to defeat the defending Premiers Manly 18-14 at Penrith Stadium.
No-one gave Penrith a hope that day either. Not against a Sea Eagles side stacked with champions like Geoff Toovey, Cliff Lyons and Des Hasler.

That day before a small but vocal crowd the Panthers young brigade and a few senior players like John Cartwright, Ryan Girdler and Carl MacNamara all dug deep and played like men possessed to repel wave after wave of maroon and white attack.
Like the game last Saturday, it was a win for the ages.
Nearly 30 years later, I got to see a similar game and result. Wins like this just don’t happen every day.
Regardless of the result against the top-of-the table Bulldogs, this game was a watershed moment for the team.
A game which will be looked at in years to come as the match which marked a sharp turning point for a club, which lifted itself off the canvas and back into contention.
Veteran prop Moses Leota and several experienced players talked about how embarrassed they were at how they performed against the Knights only a few weeks earlier with the club also missing five Origin players.
He learned the hard way that you don’t always have to stand tall.
But you always have to stand up.

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.