The Penrith Panthers have clinched the minor premiership with a nail-biting come-from-behind victory against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Accor Stadium this evening with a four-point win over last year's grand finalists.
It was billed as a semi-final dress rehearsal between the two sides who still have so much to play for with three rounds remaining. The Rabbitohs are still yet to secure their spot in the finals, while the reigning premiers want to ensure the minor premiership without their big guns in Luai, Cleary and Fisher-Harris.
There's no doubt that the sidelined contingent would've loved the aggressive defensive start forcing a number of mistakes and poor decisions, including one which led to the first try of the contest. The first try would've given Souths fans some DeJa'Vu, a poor pass from Damien Cook wasn't caught by Cody Walker and just like in the grand final. Stephen Crichton picked it up and scooped the best part of 50 meters to score the match's opening try and give his side an early lead. Despite other attacking opportunities off the back of O'Sullivan's well-executed 40/20, the score would remain at 6-0.
But, it's clear if you give the Rabbitohs some footy, they'll pick up some points. It was their daunting left edge that gave Souths their first try. It was a well-worked set play which saw Cody Walker link up with Isaiah Tass and the young centre got a magnificent tip on to Alex Johnson who strolled over the try-line. Latrell Mitchell's conversion was unsuccessful and Penrith had a slight lead.
Souths thought they had a second off a kick by Damien Cook, unfortunately, Junior Tatola was offside and played an active role in the kick-chase. Off a play the ball error from Mitchell, Penrith went down the left and it was a lovely play from O'Sullivan and Dylan Edwards sprinted 40 meters to cross. Despite some doubts over an obstruction, the Bunker gave it the all-clear and confirmed the four-pointer and Penrith had an 8-point lead. Both sides bombed chances to cross the stripe and add to their total, but it was Liam Martin's dropped grubber that cost the Panthers dearly. A lovely offload from Mitchell saw Walker fool Edwards in cover defence to reduce the deficit to two points. A ball strip from Viliame Kikau gave Mitchell a gift of two points to level it up at the break.
Straight after the break, Souths bombed two tries in quick succession when Jaxson Paulo failed to grab the ball on two occasions. Some sloppy discipline to match compounded a poor start to the second half, Crichton knocked over a penalty goal to give his side the lead back. Four minutes later, off the back of a bizarre sequence of play which saw the Rabbits attempt two short dropouts in the space of one minute saw Koroisau grubber the ball in behind and Spencer Leinu pounced to give Penrith an eight-point lead.
The Rabbitohs bounced back on the score-sheet when they pounced on a Panthers mistake. It was a lovely set play that saw Murray, Ilias and Mitchell link up to find Campbell Graham who slides over and gets it down in the corner which saw the Rabbitohs reduce the margin to just four points. Six minutes later, off another error from the Panthers, it was Cody Walker again who delivered a wonderful pass and Alex Johnston crashed over to score his second in the left corner, Mitchell delivered a big sideline conversion to give Souths a two-point lead. Mitchell turned from hero to villain when he was ruled offside on the goal-line to tie the game at 22-22. With the game on the line, Koroisau fooled the Rabbitohs defence and found Liam Martin, despite being denied twice in the match thus far, he slammed it down to seal the come-from-behind victory and their fourth minor premiership.