The Panthers are last.
After eight rounds of the season, the team which won the last four titles is now 17th of 17 after Saturday night’s 26-10 loss to Manly at CommBank Stadium.
Tom Trbojevic made an impactful return from a knee injury for the Sea Eagles and while it is premature to say Penrith’s title hopes are over, they will have to defy history and produced a dramatic turnaround in form to have any hope of playoff success.
In the earlier game, Des Hasler’s future is looking murkier by the week as Gold Coast’s losses continue to pile up.
The Titans threw away an 18-6 lead to go down 50-18 to the Cowboys who have revived their playoff campaign with four wins on the trot.
1. Premiers plummet to last
The mighty have fallen.
Penrith, the western Sydney powerhouse which has enjoyed a four-year dynasty of dominance, have lost six from eight starts to occupy the bottom rung of the NRL ladder.
After five straight losses, it looked like they had kick-started their campaign for five premierships in a row by routing the Roosters last week but they were again a shadow of their former selves against Manly.
With several new faces in their line-up in 2025, the Panthers are often not in synch with support players a step behind where they need to be.
It’s in total contrast to their previous four seasons where they were clinical in the way the many moving parts of Ivan Cleary’s all-conquering machine would operate with perfect precision.
They showed plenty of fight to rally back from a 14-point deficit but they were gassed after nearly drawing level with Manly cashing in with two late tries.
2. Turbo puts Manly back on track
If the Tommy Turbo was a car, it would be in the luxury section.
Just like Grandpa’s old Bentley, the prestige is devalued by its tendency to break down too often.
But when he is firing on all cylinders, Trbojevic is arguably the most devastating ball runner in the NRL.
Not by coincidence, Manly had lost all three matches while Turbo was in for running repairs on a knee injury but in his comeback on Saturday night he tormented Penrith’s inexperienced left-edge defence of Blaize Talagi, Casey McLean and Tom Jenkins.
They had already conceded an early try to Manly right centre Reuben Garrick before Trbojevic swung around from the back to catch and pass in the blink of an eye to release Tommy Talau down the right wing.
He finished with 18 runs for 181 metres, including 65 post contact, and a try assist in a polished performance to give his team the touch of class that they had sorely lacked in losing to the Storm, Sharks and Dragons.
Trailing 14-0 at half-time, Penrith got a slice of luck when a 40-20 call went their way when replays showed Lehi Hopoate had denied the ball going over the sideline when he batted it infield.
They cut the gap to four when Talagi and Izack Tago touched down and went within millimetres of hitting the front but Luke Sommerton was just held up over the line.
Tom Trbojevic makes a break. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Manly prop Siosiua Taukeiaho was binned for a high shot and had to hand the ball back because he was pinged a set after he made the tackle on Isaiah Papali’i.
A Trbojevic break led to a kick over the top and Paul Alamoti being marched for a professional foul on Daly Cherry-Evans as he chased the Steeden for Manly to go 16-10 up before Haumole Olakau’atu gave them a 12-point buffer when he athletically claimed a bomb.
DCE combined with Tolu Koula for the centre to make it a 16-pont margin with 13 minutes left and the Sea Eagles held their nerve to consign Penrith to the cellar in a dramatic drop from their seemingly permanent place in the NRL penthouse.
3. Panthers losing their cool … and their aura
Penrith’s players are getting a taste of how the other half have lived over the past four years.
They have gone from the NRL’s schoolyard bullies who swept away everyone in their path to being pushed around all over the park.
And they’re rattled.
That is manifesting itself in acts like Dylan Edwards trying to trip Tommy Talau as he scored and Scott Sorensen resorting to a shoulder charge in trying to bring down a rampaging Nathan Brown from a kick restart.
Sorensen was lucky his contact did not stray above the shoulders, otherwise his sin-binning in the 33rd minute would have been a straight send-off.
Opposition teams respect Penrith but they no longer fear them and they will need to win at least 11 of their remaining 16 matches just to scrape into the finals.
4. Cowboys fire up after slow start
Scoring the first try against a struggling team like the Titans can trigger complacency.
And so it was at QCB Stadium on Saturday night when the Cowboys drew first blood before gifting away their advantage.
The Cowboys conceded silly penalties and repeated six-agains as Jojo Fifita, Beau Fermor and Brian Kelly crossed the stripe.
They cut the gap to six by halftime when Jeremiah Nanai touched down even though Jake Clifford was in the sin bin.
When Jaiman Jolliffe was binned for a high shot just before the break, North Queensland capitalised via a Robert Derby try before Jaxon Purdue nudged them in front.
Nanai’s second try put the hosts up 28-18 and the combined effects of Tino Fa’asuamaleaui getting a well-earned breather and Brock Gray getting 10 in the bin for high contact led to the trusty old Titans floodgates opening.
Derby registered his first career hat-trick in anti-climactic circumstances with a penalty try in the closing stages as the Cowboys botched their fourth straight victory after kicking off the season with a hat-trick of losses.
5. Des-aster for Hasler with future clouded
Hasler is neck and neck with Newcastle’s Adam O’Brien when it comes to the coach most likely to end up on the chopping block this season.
The dual premiership winner was brought to the Gold Coast to turn around the serial under-achievers but his first year and a half has been a mere continuation of their ongoing mediocrity.
After giving up a 16-0 lead last week in their loss to the Raiders, this time they conceded 44 straight points after establishing an 18-6 buffer.
Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Beau Fermor can hold their heads high after charging the ball strongly and tackling anything that came their way.
But too many of their teammates are going through the motions or are simply incapable of performing up to NRL standard consistently enough over the course of an 80-minute contest.
Some of their edge defence was abysmal with the Cowboys untroubled as they shuffled the ball wide to frequent create overlaps to convert into tries.
“We didn’t play well,” Hasler said in a similarly glum assessment to the previous week. “As soon as a tiny bit of adversity goes against us we sort of fall to pieces.
At 2-5, the Titans’ slim finals chances are almost already over before the calendar turns to May.
Their next assignment is the competition leaders in Magic Round and even with the Bulldogs likely to have three stars out due to suspension, they would need to be without another six or seven before the Titans have any chance of knocking them off.
The Kick: Fifita should be dropped altogether
Hasler has tried to light a fire in David Fifita by starting him on the bench.
But he has done little in response to shake the tag of the NRL’s most overpaid player.
Hasler should punt him to the Queensland Cup for a week or two.
Payten did so with Nanai after Round 1 and the Maroons forward has responded by working his way back into top form.
Better players than Fifita have been axed to the reserves over the years.
The embarrassment of losing his spot could motivate him to earn his starting berth back and prove that he is worth his lucrative contract.
With just three tackle breaks, 88 run metres and 16 tackles from his 59 minutes on field against the Cowboys, the 25-year-old former rep star was yet again a non-factor.
