Away from the irresistible collisions on the field, or a chess match between two well-coached sides, there is perhaps no more compelling confrontation in rugby league than when a beleaguered coach walks into a post-match press conference.
Late on Thursday night at Suncorp Stadium, after the four-time defending premiers Penrith lost their fifth game in six, the exchange between Brisbane’s press – few with any loyalty to the visitors – was brutal.
“Do you think you can salvage this season, come back from this sort of start?”, was the opening question after Thursday night’s 30-12 defeat against the Dolphins.
The reply was upbeat. “Yeah, of course I can,” Cleary said. But the follow-up, delivered deadpan and immediately, hit harder: “Why is that?” It was frank but, after six weeks of limited improvement from the premiers, absolutely justified.
The coach shrugged momentarily and his eyes left the brave reporter. Yet Cleary – fidgeting with what appeared to be a premiership ring – regathered his composure, and stared down his inquisitor.
“Because I have faith in the boys. I have faith in the team and the club,” Cleary said, before inhaling deeply. “Yeah it’s obviously a little challenging at the moment, that’s putting in mildly, we’re just not playing well enough.”
Much of the NRL universe, stretching from the UK to Las Vegas but not quite yet to Perth, has been waiting patiently for the end of this Panthers dynasty. After another defeat on Thursday in which Penrith looked out of sync in attack and defensively vulnerable, that time seems to have arrived.
Penrith have played six games now, and – after a narrow victory over Cronulla in Nevada – lost five straight. But it is the manner of their defeats that has their opponents salivating. No team in the NRL has conceded more than the Panthers so far this season, their 170 against coming at an average of almost 30 per match.
Last season, the club hardly started brilliantly, with two losses in their first five games. But they didn’t concede 170 points until round 13. “Our defence is not up to standard, and that’s actually having a big effect on the rest of the game,” Cleary said. “That’s just too many weeks where we just can’t defend our line early in the game, which just gives the opposition confidence and probably takes ours away a little bit.”
The Panthers trailed 18-6 at half-time on Thursday night. Two weeks ago it was 28-0 against Souths. They have conceded early tries against the Roosters and Storm earlier in the season, but their defence in the opening stages is a symptom of a broader problem.
The off-season loss of Jarome Luai, James Fisher-Harris and Sunia Turuva has pushed the club’s depth to its limit. “It’s not just the players we have lost,” Cleary said. “That’s the fifth different spine we’ve had in six weeks as well, so there have been a lot of changes during the season, and there’s been a lot of tight games that we just haven’t won.”
The club is yet to settle on Nathan Cleary’s long-term partner in the halves. Luai was widely considered to be less impactful than Cleary but he has had a transformational impact on Wests this year, who have a positive for-and-against and could push into the top eight with a win against Newcastle on Sunday. Blaize Talagi, the promising but inconsistent 20-year-old brought in from the Eels, was given his first start at five-eighth on Thursday but – like the rest of the Panthers’ backline – struggled to have an impact.
“It’s wasn’t surprising, really, that he wasn’t perfect tonight, but you saw the kind of player he is,” Cleary said. “If he doesn’t get it all right, it doesn’t stop him, he just keeps on going, keeps on asking questions. Probably tonight gives you someone indication of why I didn’t think he was ready before that, but again it’s a hard one to judge it on tonight, I thought he was definitely asking questions all the way to the end, and he will only get better.”
The loss of the Panthers’ game manager Cleary to concussion for two matches, as well as fullback Dylan Edwards who missed more than half the season with a groin strain, has meant new combinations have been slow to develop. Edwards said on Thursday night it has been hard to watch the team struggle. “It’s just frustrating at the moment,” he said. “We just have to keep working hard, our luck will turn, but we’ve got to make it turn as well.”
Co-captain Isaah Yeo described the current outlook as “unchartered territory” across his period of leadership. “There’s no point being a victim towards it, I think you sort of pull your shoulders back, look at it all head on and that’s what we’re doing,” he said, adding that it was a “wonderful challenge”.
The Panthers’ coach remains optimistic they can turn it around. “If we can improve our defence, it’s going to give us a lot more confidence, and then it’s just a building process from there,” Cleary said. “So it looks like doom and gloom, but it can change quickly as well.”
