The finals arrived more than two months early on Friday night with reigning champions Penrith and the No.1 contenders Canterbury going toe to toe in a heavyweight bout which went the distance.
At times mirroring the intensity of an Origin match, Nathan Cleary came up with the match-winning play 13 minutes into the second half when he charged down a Matt Burton kick to propel the Panthers to a 8-6 triumph.
This was the NRL’s version of the Spider-Man meme – two equally matched opponents unable to find a weakness in the other.
That should not be a surprise given the Bulldogs are coached by Ivan Cleary’s former assistant, Cameron Ciraldo, with ex-Panthers trio Stephen Crichton, Viliame Kikau and Matt Burton arguably their three most influential players.
1. Premiers won’t surrender title belt
There comes a point in time when a champion over many years reaches a point where they face a younger, hungrier opponent on the rise as they start to fade just a little.
They can either buckle under pressure, yield to the passage of time or show the fighting qualities that made them the best.
Penrith chose the latter option at CommBank Stadium.
For the first 50 minutes of the contest they looked like they were getting outmuscled by the Dogs but they stayed in the fight and got home on the back of Cleary’s sucker punch.
The win lifts the Panthers into sixth on the ladder, possibly temporarily, but they are now cemented in the top eight after a painfully slow start to the year.
More importantly, they are still in the hunt for a fifth straight premiership and will have every other title contender looking over their shoulder.
2. Cleary shrugs off groin to stand tall
The NSW star’s groin injury is still bothering him and he explained pre-game that it was at its most problematic when performing the goal-kicking motion so he would be handing those duties to Dylan Edwards.
When he made a break in the 53rd minute, it didn’t look like he totally stretched out into a full sprint as the cover defence cut him down.
But he didn’t need to hit top gear just a minute later when he came up with the decisive play of the game, rushing up to smother Burton’s clearing kick and then pouncing from short range to put the Panthers in front 8-6.
Cleary was targeted all night in defence by Kikau with his former teammate launching himself repeatedly at his undersized opponent but the Penrith playmaker withstood the onslaught to have the last laugh for what was easily their best win of the season.
3. Bulldogs not quite the finished product
The easiest option for old league hacks is to rehash the Dogs of War cliche whenever Canterbury’s defence is full of mongrel.
For the most part against the Panthers, their defence had the perfect mix of aggro and nous – they rushed up on Cleary, matched their opposing pack’s intensity in the middle and never panicked out wide.
To top it all off, Connor Tracey scrambled superbly at fullback to twice deny Blaize Talagi from scoring with powerful tackles just shy of the line.
This was premiership standard defence.
Unfortunately for them, one slip-up from Burton led to Cleary conjuring up six precious points in the context of this slugfest and that proved to be the difference.
If they can play at this standard in the playoffs, they will be well and truly in the mix for the title.
But they should also learn from this encounter with their more experienced opposition that nothing comes easy when the stakes are this high.
The Panthers learned that lesson the hard way when Melbourne monstered them in the 2020 grand final.
The Dogs had a chance to equalise two minutes from full-time when Brian To’o was penalised for high contact on Xerri but they elected not to try the sideline attempt and ended up spilling the ball a few plays later in search of the winning try.
Crichton opted against taking the kick and it backfired: “I just thought we had the momentum there. We were actually skinning them every time we had the chance to put some shape on.
“Looking back at it now, I should have took my luck and hit it and if you miss, you miss. That was purely on me. I told the boys to tap and go.”
4. Moment of magic from the master
The first 15 minutes was the proverbial arm wrestle, setting the tone for the match.
Burton burst through for the first line break but was denied by Izack Tago and Edwards in cover defence before Tracey barrelled back Talagi at the other end of the field.
Bronson Xerri and Burton were held up over the line in the same set as Penrith’s defence refused to buckle.
Kikau clipped Cleary high in the 25th minute for Penrith to awaken the scoreboard attendants from their slumber with a straightforward Edwards two-pointer.
With both teams defending like demons it was going to take something special for a try to be scored and the Dogs delivered six minutes from the break with a slick interchange of passing from Reed Mahoney, Toby Sexton and Connor Tracey sending Jacob Preston over the stripe.
Tracey again snuffed out a Talagi try with seconds on the clock in the first half before Cleary’s chargedown four-pointer in the 53rd minute swung the momentum back to the premiers.
Canterbury started chancing their arm much more after Cleary’s game-changing play – against most other teams they would have put more points on the board but Penrith in this mood were never going to be denied.
5. McLean arcs up at Crichton
The young buck took on the old bill by the horns.
Casey McLean has inherited Stephen Crichton’s old Penrith centre jersey and the Panthers upstart made it his mission to get under the Bulldogs skipper’s skin from the get-go.
Crichton bit back in a running verbal battle and brought the physicality to their contest on the edge.
Stephen Crichton is tackled. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
McLean backed up his bravado midway through the first half when he chased down Crichton as he tried to break free near the sideline.
The verbal sparring tailed off but the intensity of the contest within the contest did not.
McLean is only 19 but he showed no fear against the best defensive centre, if not the best centre overall, in the NRL.
He brought down Crichton with 40 seconds on the clock to halt one of Canterbury’s final flings and was then helped out by winger Tom Jenkins to take down the skipper with the final play of the match as Penrith hung on by the skin of their teeth.
The Kick: DSF a DNF
Daniel Suluka-Fifita looked dazed as he reeled out of a tackle in the opening hit-up of the match.
The Canterbury forward was allowed to stay on the field by his trainer but was hooked a few plays later by referee Grant Atkins, operating on advice from the doctor in the Bunker.
It looked an open and shut case as he was ruled out for the rest of the match after being diagnosed from afar with category-one symptoms.
But he then passed his head injury assessment and prowled the sideline anxiously as his teammates clawed their way through the contest.
Biased Bulldogs fans could claim they were hard done by because Suluka-Fifita missed all but one minute of the match.
But that’s not the point of the heightened concussion protocols – it is better to be safe than sorry.
The Bulldogs can potentially get Suluka-Fifita cleared of the automatic stand-down if he continues to pass the tests over the next week before they face Brisbane in Round 18.
