Round 9: Penrith v Cronulla preview
When he took over as caretaker coach at Cronulla, Josh Hannay said he would not truly know how the playing group would react to the exit of John Morris until after their game against Newcastle.
While there is no saying for sure that the coaching drama has directly led to the group's sudden decline, there is little doubting the team has gone backwards since the news was confirmed.
A lot of it has come down to execution - the final pass in a sweeping backline play being called forward or a finger scraping the touchline in a diving attempt to get the ball down.
Cronulla should have won at least two of their past three games if their execution was slightly better.
Instead, they dropped three-straight matches and find themselves in the bottom four.
Cronulla are boosted by the return of Jesse Ramien from a glute injury this week though they will be without Braden Hamlin-Uele who is sidelined with a syndesmosis injury.
Former Panther Matt Moylan is on the extended bench and a chance of overcoming a quad issue.
Moylan has often lifted against his ex-teammates but this is a different Penrith unit to the one he left.
There have been periods in the past three weeks that the Panthers, like Cronulla, have lacked their usual polish in attack.
The only difference is that Penrith have still been able to get the job done and in most cases it has still been relatively comfortable.
Their on-goal defence continues to be the greatest strength though, averaging a league-low 7.5 points against per game.
Last week Penrith leaked the most points they had all year (16) and even still one of those tries came off a wayward pass while another was the product of a fortunate bounce.
Put simply, it will take something special for Cronulla to pull off the upset this week.
Last meeting: Round 15 2020 - Panthers 38 Sharks 12
Who to watch: Liam Martin came up with the miracle bat back last week to set up the match-sealing try for Penrith against Manly and would have fond memories of his last meeting against Cronulla. Martin terrorised former teammate Moylan, manhandling the Cronulla five-eighth in a standout performance. Starting in the second row, Martin ran for 159 metres, scored a try, set up one and broke the line twice. Viliame Kikau has shown glimpses of fatigue in recent weeks with errors and poor tackle attempts an issue. If Ivan Cleary opts to play Kikau on reduced minutes it will only increase the importance of Martin's work off the bench. The Temora product has provided plenty of impact to put himself in contention as an Origin bolter.
The Panthers looked most troubled last week against Manly when their big men were offloading close to the defensive line, giving the likes of Tom Trbojevic more space and time to roam. While Jesse Ramien may not be playing in the forward pack, he could prove a handful for the Penrith defence given his size and strength alone. Add the fact he is averaging the second-most offloads in the league and he shapes as Cronulla's best chance of breaking the relentless Penrith line.
The favourite: The Panthers are heavily backed to continue their streak.
My tip: Once again, complacency is all that stands in the way of Penrith this week. Cronulla do boast a handy backline but the Panthers do too and have an advantage everywhere else. Penrith by 30.
