‘The premiers are back’: Dominant Panthers exact revenge on Roosters

That was a wild night of rugby league in an increasingly chaotic NRL season.

I don’t know if you remember, but the night started with a golden-point epic that ended after Reece Walsh booted the kick-off dead on the full. Up stepped a bloke who’d missed his last six shots at goal and he somehow drilled a 50m penalty goal to win the match.

Then we had the Panthers taking on the Roosters, the team that started their five-game losing streak. The premiers looked shaky to start, but something clicked after about 20 minutes and things looked eerily familiar from there.

There will be plenty of fallout from both games and more action on Sunday and Monday, so please check out ABC Sport for all your footy needs.

Penrith may have run away with it in the end – but things were very tight in the first half at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson is talking to the media, and he is not happy with some of the calls he feels went against his team tonight.

He’s particularly unimpressed with the penalty that wasn’t called when James Tedesco and Dylan Edwards collided in the first half.

Edwards went unpunished, the Roosters denied a penalty try, and moments later, the Panthers scored to level things up.

“If you’re going for the ball, you’re going for the ball, you’re not standing tall,” Robinson says.

“It was 10 metres between where he kicked it and where the collision was…there wasn’t a going for the ball there, it was a standing and a leaning towards Ted on that side.”

Robinson is also taking aim at a couple escort penalties that didn’t go the Roosters way.

Victor Radley was pinged for one early in the second half before Nathan Cleary wasn’t just moments later.

“And then you go to those escort penalties…those decisions are really, really clear and they’re big plays…we missed our moments and so did they,” Robinson says.

The Roosters were well beaten tonight, and Robinson admits it. But it did feel like the Panthers got a slight rub of the green, early on at least.

“I felt they were poor calls, I felt they were poor calls,” Robinson says.

“They can change moments – we got beaten over the course of the whole game but they’re big moments.”

Roosters coach Trent Robinson is speaking to media and it’s bad news for prop Nat Butcher.

“He’s got an MCL injury, it’s pretty disappointing, you know?” Robinson says.

“Nothing was mentioned at all…but it was a tackle, he gets an MCL injury and he’s done for the night.”

And he’s holding himself back when asked how he assessed the unpunished tackle that caused it.

“To not even have a discussion and a guy to do an MCL and finish for the game… It’s pretty clear,” Robinson says.

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary was down on the sidelines tonight instead of up in the coach’s box tonight because he wanted to “feel and hear” the game tonight.

He says the team rediscovered rhythm they haven’t had since round one in Las Vegas.

“All our leaders tonight were really good. It’ll be a good night for some of the young guys too to get some confidence.”

Ivan explains an interchange error with Izack Tago in the first half, when the Panthers temporary had 14 players on the field and it cost them two interchanges even though no substitution was ultimately made.

Scott Sorensen dislocated his finger and was going to sub off for Tago, but at the last second he and the trainers decided he was going to stay on.

“We thought [his finger] must’ve been broken because he ran towards the sideline and Izack, who’s never been on the bench before, he didn’t give his [interchange] card to anyone. He just threw it on the ground. It was a balls-up.”

Teams have been fined tens of thousands of dollars or even stripped of competition points for similar errors, so there may be more to come on this front.

Meanwhile, Nathan Cleary became Penrith’s leading point-scorer tonight and says he’s not sure if he can catch Cameron Smith, who’s about 1,200 points ahead of Cleary.

“That’s pretty far away. Those little things you can tick off a long the way. The more important thing was getting back on the track and feeling like ourselves again.”

Dylan Edwards was in fine form for the Panthers tonight.

A smorgasbord of line breaking runs and a couple try assists and he, like Sorensen and the Cleary’s before him, is looking like a new man.

Fox is asking him what clicked tonight for the four-time defending premiers.

“Our energy both in attack and defence,” Edwards says. 

“And just celebrating the little things that are good in footy and what you can sort of miss when you’re a bit down on confidence and a bit down on form.”

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary is talking to Fox post-game, and there just might be the hint of a twinkle in his eye again.

“Probably since Vegas, we hadn’t really played the style of game that we like – certainly partly our fault for sure,” Cleary says.

“Tonight, I thought the first half was a really solid game of footy…and in the second half the way it went, the boys found that rhythm and remembered what it was like to actually win.”

The relief is written all over Cleary’s face – certainly a whole lot more optimistic than he did here.

It was a dominant performance from the Panthers in the end.

And Scott Sorensen, responsible for that magic flick pass in the lead up to Dylan Edward’s try, is just relieved to be back in the winner’s circle after five weeks out of it.

“Obviously it’s been a couple of weeks so it’s nice that we could get on top tonight and show a little bit more resilience,” Sorenson tells ABC Sport.

“It was nice to do that and come away with the win and hopefully set us up for the next couple weeks.”

It’s the Panthers first win since Vegas.

Paul Alamoti kicks a penalty goal to end the match and that makes it 40-12 to the Panthers over the Roosters, ending the five-game losing streak against the team that started it back in round two.

This game was a warning shot to the rest of the league that, as Kevin Walters declared on Fox Sports, “the premiers are back”.

Penrith would have just wanted to win this game, end the losing streak and move on, but the second half looked like the Panthers of old as they turned the screws, kicked to corners and never released the pressure.

“The last few weeks we’ve been trying so hard, but it’s sort of been misplaced energy, it hasn’t been really connected. I think we’ve been forcing it too much to try and get that win,” Nathan Cleary tells Fox Sports.

“Tonight we wanted to just put in a really good performance and let the rest take care of itself, and just get that feeling back of what it feels like to be a Panther and the way we want to play.”

They regather the kick-off, they regather the dropout.

And now they force another one as James Tedesco tries to clean up a grubber, but slips over and the ball balloons up over him.

The Roosters get some relief as Brad Schneider is penalised for taking James Tedesco out off the ball as he chased the short dropout.

Siua Wong gives a way a piggyback penalty with a flop on Tom Jenkins and the Panthers get a trip upfield.

They spin it left and the Roosters appear to have the numbers but Casey McLean steps inside and beats Robert Toia to slam the ball down.

There’s a bit of push and shove that seems to be centred around Dom Young, who was walking past the celebrations and then spun around to confront someone. Not sure what went down there, but it’s all dispersed now. Roosters getting a bit frustrated it seems.

The Panthers line up to the left and they have the Roosters stripped for numbers, but Dom Young jams in on Scott Sorensen. He looks in trouble, but he pulls off a gorgeous around-the-back pass to Dylan Edwards for the fullback to score.

Better than Kodi Nikorima’s last night? Maybe. What I do know though, is the Panthers are up and about.

“The premiers are back. They are back,” Kevin Walters says in commentary for Fox.

Penrith fields the ball on their 40m line and truck it upfield.

Dylan Edwards gets a key offload to Izack Tago and it puts the Panthers in perfect field position on the last.

Nathan Cleary brings his crossfield kick down on Sandon Smith, who makes a glorious catch but is immediately dumped into the in-goal.

Nathan Cleary’s kick is too shallow, but Paul Alamoti manages to tap back. Moses Leota chases the bouncing ball and, rather than grabbing the ball and taking the tackle, he expertly bats it back to Isaah Yeo, who grubbers into the goalpost padding and Blaize Talagi flies through to touch down.

This is classic Penrith.

Even if you get a sniff, they’ll hit right back.

Even if the ball goes to ground, they’re still a threat.

The Roosters call an audible at the scrumbase, with winger Dom Young sprinting into feed the scrum as the entire backline gets into shape to the left.

But Connor Watson picks it up at lock and they go short side. Watson fakes to Young and pops a ball back inside to Rob Toia to dive over for his first NRL try.

So, they’re not exactly the Penrith Panthers of old, because Dylan Edwards has made a poorly timed, poorly placed error as he runs the ball off his line.

Mitch Kenny sees James Tedesco in the line, he steps out of dummy half and drops the ball on his toe. Naufahu Whyte tries to run Papali’i off the ball to give his outside backs a chance to clean up, but they’re nowhere to be seen and Papali’i dives on the ball.

The Panthers are rolling now. Looking very ominous.

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Mark Nawaqanitawase is cracked in the back of the head by Scott Sorensen as he goes to ground in a sort of hybrid crusher/high shot, but Gerard Sutton says no penalty, further frustrating the Roosters.

So they’re forced to kick from around halfway and Hugo Savala’s bomb is caught by Tom Jenkins, who offloads to Casey McLean, who flies upfield to get the Panthers on the front foot.

That’s what I was talking about with the Victor Radley escort penalty. Nathan Cleary does exactly the same thing and jogs into Mark Nawaqanitawase to deny him a jump at the ball, but because he pretended to be looking at the ball it’s not a penalty.

Dom Young takes a charge on the second tackle and Lindsay Smith slips up too high.

It’s little more than a love tap, but a very obvious penalty and the Roosters are gifted 40 or so metres.