Round 13: TITANS vs PANTHERS

[DavidBouveng]

In saying that Im not expecting a win, and Mansour should get a double

ill be captaining him in Supercoach!

[DIEHARD]

Late Mail: Titans v Panthers

Titans: James Roberts could make his club debut after being named 18th man. Nate Myles, Albert Kelly, Kevin Gordon and Brad Takairangi all return from injury.

Panthers: James Segeyaro and Sam McKendry are in some doubt with ankle injuries, while Dean Whare is battling a cork. Kevin Kingston could be a late inclusion after overcoming his foot injury.

[DIEHARD]

We spoke to Elijah Taylor earlier in the week about what was the most impressive aspect of last week's victory, the great crowd and what we are up against when we face the Gold Coast Titans tomorrow night.

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[Skyfire]

This is going to be a good match up. A lot on the line or up for grabs for both clubs. I do tip the Titans to win with the return of Kelly, Blair at 5/8th.

[Mexican titan]

This is going to be a good match up. A lot on the line or up for grabs for both clubs. I do tip the Titans to win with the return of Kelly, Blair at 5/8th.

Lets hope you are right. These are the halves that many of us wanted. Failure tomorrow and it's all over for this year I'm afraid. Hopefully we win and Zilly has a lousy game and forces a change at fullback. Win win.

[Blade07]

Anyone have any insight on the final team
Anyone went down to training or anything

[TITAN PETE]

Titans on alert for 'little' Bryce
By Tony Webeck & Matt Encarnacion
NRL.com
6:00am Sat 07th June, 2014



Many rugby league fans wouldn't even be aware that Bryce Cartwright made his NRL debut last weekend.

Casual Panther supporters who tuned in last Friday night will have been impressed at their first look of the tall back-rower with a penchant for an offload while die-hard Penrith fans will have been salivating at the prospect of the raw-boned rookie making good on the promise he has displayed in the junior grades coming through the system.

For Titans coach John Cartwright, it was a whole new view of a nephew he remembers most as older brother David's kid running around in the family backyard back in Penrith.

If his introduction to the top grade against Parramatta was anything to go by, Cartwright will cause throbbing migraines for opposition defensive coaches for the next decade and Uncle John concedes the thought of shutting him down on Saturday night is a surreal one.

"It is a strange feeling. You remember your kids as babies and running around the backyard and that's my memories of Bryce, but he's obviously a lot bigger than that now," Cartwright said.

"He's dangerous. He's got offloads in him and he plays both sides of the field. He didn't show any lack of confidence coming in, I think the first couple of times he touched the ball he got offloads away and he poked his nose down the left side of the field and the right side of the field. It's a bit of an ominous sign for an opposition when a young guy can go in and be that confident.

"On Saturday he'll be just another guy in a black jumper but after the game I might punch him or cuddle him, we'll have to wait and see."

For 19-year-old Bryce, it will be a continuation of a dream start to his NRL career that began with Panthers and Roosters legend Brad Fittler presenting him with his maiden first grade jersey.

A New South Wales under-16s and under-18s representative, he conceded that carrying the Cartwright name at Penrith does bring with it additional pressures but said his father – who played five first grade games for the Panthers in 1980-81 – gave him some words of advice that held him in good stead.

"Yeah, I felt a lot of pressure. Everyone expected a lot from me. But I tried to just block that out and play my own game," Bryce said after his debut game that included three offloads.

"My dad just said, 'Don’t go into your shell, just treat it like any other game' and I felt I did that.

"When I was a kid I went for the Roosters because Freddy (Fittler) was my favourite player. I only went for Freddy.

"He came into the sheds before the game and wished me luck. It’s just crazy for him to do that. It’s surreal. I didn't know what to say when he looked at me or shook my hand. It was crazy."

It will be much the same feeling for John when he pores over video to devise a game-plan to shut down his own nephew but he was full of praise for the way Panthers officials have managed Bryce's ascension to the grade.

Still eligible for the under-20s competition, calls grew loud last year when Penrith were out of finals contention for the youngster to be given a taste of first grade but John commended the club for the way they have brought him along.

"They've done a great job with him actually," John said. "They haven't rushed him in, they've given him plenty of time to find his feet through the first division at Penrith and he's gone through every level and done well.

"The opportunity the other night was a good time to blood him as well, with a big home crowd, home game. It's always nice to be able to give a guy the easiest possible pathway because it is a tough thing to do and he came through that with flying colours."

It was a 32-minute cameo at the back-end of a game the Panthers had well under control but it was enough to also grab the attention of Titans co-captain Greg Bird.

"I've noticed that," Bird said when told of his love of an offload. "I watched him play in the under-20s grand final last year and he's a good young player.

"Not sure where he's going to be playing, on the left edge, right edge or middle but I'm sure I'll come up in front of him at some stage during the game."

And when he does, that will be some welcome to first grade.

- - - Updated - - -

Titans on alert for 'little' Bryce
By Tony Webeck & Matt Encarnacion
NRL.com
6:00am Sat 07th June, 2014



Many rugby league fans wouldn't even be aware that Bryce Cartwright made his NRL debut last weekend.

Casual Panther supporters who tuned in last Friday night will have been impressed at their first look of the tall back-rower with a penchant for an offload while die-hard Penrith fans will have been salivating at the prospect of the raw-boned rookie making good on the promise he has displayed in the junior grades coming through the system.

For Titans coach John Cartwright, it was a whole new view of a nephew he remembers most as older brother David's kid running around in the family backyard back in Penrith.

If his introduction to the top grade against Parramatta was anything to go by, Cartwright will cause throbbing migraines for opposition defensive coaches for the next decade and Uncle John concedes the thought of shutting him down on Saturday night is a surreal one.

"It is a strange feeling. You remember your kids as babies and running around the backyard and that's my memories of Bryce, but he's obviously a lot bigger than that now," Cartwright said.

"He's dangerous. He's got offloads in him and he plays both sides of the field. He didn't show any lack of confidence coming in, I think the first couple of times he touched the ball he got offloads away and he poked his nose down the left side of the field and the right side of the field. It's a bit of an ominous sign for an opposition when a young guy can go in and be that confident.

"On Saturday he'll be just another guy in a black jumper but after the game I might punch him or cuddle him, we'll have to wait and see."

For 19-year-old Bryce, it will be a continuation of a dream start to his NRL career that began with Panthers and Roosters legend Brad Fittler presenting him with his maiden first grade jersey.

A New South Wales under-16s and under-18s representative, he conceded that carrying the Cartwright name at Penrith does bring with it additional pressures but said his father – who played five first grade games for the Panthers in 1980-81 – gave him some words of advice that held him in good stead.

"Yeah, I felt a lot of pressure. Everyone expected a lot from me. But I tried to just block that out and play my own game," Bryce said after his debut game that included three offloads.

"My dad just said, 'Don’t go into your shell, just treat it like any other game' and I felt I did that.

"When I was a kid I went for the Roosters because Freddy (Fittler) was my favourite player. I only went for Freddy.

"He came into the sheds before the game and wished me luck. It’s just crazy for him to do that. It’s surreal. I didn't know what to say when he looked at me or shook my hand. It was crazy."

It will be much the same feeling for John when he pores over video to devise a game-plan to shut down his own nephew but he was full of praise for the way Panthers officials have managed Bryce's ascension to the grade.

Still eligible for the under-20s competition, calls grew loud last year when Penrith were out of finals contention for the youngster to be given a taste of first grade but John commended the club for the way they have brought him along.

"They've done a great job with him actually," John said. "They haven't rushed him in, they've given him plenty of time to find his feet through the first division at Penrith and he's gone through every level and done well.

"The opportunity the other night was a good time to blood him as well, with a big home crowd, home game. It's always nice to be able to give a guy the easiest possible pathway because it is a tough thing to do and he came through that with flying colours."

It was a 32-minute cameo at the back-end of a game the Panthers had well under control but it was enough to also grab the attention of Titans co-captain Greg Bird.

"I've noticed that," Bird said when told of his love of an offload. "I watched him play in the under-20s grand final last year and he's a good young player.

"Not sure where he's going to be playing, on the left edge, right edge or middle but I'm sure I'll come up in front of him at some stage during the game."

And when he does, that will be some welcome to first grade.

[Titanic]

Don't get the game until 11.30 tonight so will be in isolation until then … Go Titans!

[DIEHARD]

Leap of faith puts rebuilt Penrith Panthers on terra firma

His tenure as Panthers Group chief executive was only a few days old when Warren Wilson was tapped on the shoulder by a group that wanted the $95 million it was owed by Penrith.

It was as bad as bad could get.

The club did not need mere fixing, it needed to be rebuilt.

The football club was operating out of the 1990s, and the culture had become toxic as players had taken control of the reins from coaching staff.

Both on and off the field, the club had overpaid for its assets in an attempt to solve growing problems, but it just dug itself deeper into a dark hole.

Panthers was on the brink of insolvency – days away from liquidation.

Now it has an $850 million redevelopment project that is part of a 10-year plan to turn the club into the No.1 sporting organisation in the country.

"When I came here, our profits were just enough to keep our heads above water," Wilson said.

"We were barely paying our interest. Our EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) on a like for like basis was $4.6 million when I arrived. In 2013, we did $14.2 million and this year we're tracking for $19.2 million, which is up around 400 per cent."

In the process of rebuilding the rugby league club, they had to contend with a backlash from passionate supporters over the club's treatment of some of its biggest names.

There was doubt over the direction it was headed in and whether the men in charge knew what was best for Penrith, but they have increased membership by 131 per cent since last year.

Their team entered round 13 in second position, but given the reluctance on the part of general manager Phil Gould and coach Ivan Cleary to talk about how much the club has achieved in just over two years, it's a fair indication that no one inside the joint is patting each other on the back just yet.

"We knew we'd lose the fans for a little while, but it wasn't a concern," Wilson said of the disgruntled fans who disagreed with the club's decision to part ways with Luke Lewis, Michael Jennings, Lachlan Coote and Michael Gordon.

"We knew that we were going to take a few hits and get beaten up. However what was going on publicly didn't bother us because we knew what we were doing in the back rooms. We just had to stay the course. The good thing about Gus (Phil Gould), the board, Ivan Cleary and myself is that no one faltered. No one wavered or panicked. We just kept digging knowing we'd eventually get there.

"What they had done in a business sense here at Penrith was exactly what they had done in a football sense. They'd gone and overpaid for assets, ie footballers, thinking that it was going to solve a problem but it actually created the problem in that a substantial portion of the salary cap was spent on a very few number of players. In the meantime they had turned their back on the juniors, so we came up with the plan to build from within."

The first stage of the rebuilding process was finding a coach with the stamina to withstand what would soon become an exercise in management as much as it was coaching a rugby league team.

They needed someone who shared their vision, someone who wasn't afraid of getting his hands dirty, but at the same time was not going to abandon the mission halfway through when it looked like the grass was greener elsewhere.

Cleary was the obvious choice, but it almost never happened because Gould got cold feet about throwing his close friend into a job that would not only consume his life, but also constantly force him to second guess his decision to take the role.

"Gus is famous for having offered Ivan the job and then going back to us and basically saying 'I can't bring him here, the poor bugger is going to be in the trenches'," Wilson said.

"Ivan was told that on day one and knew what he was in for and accepted that it would be a tough challenge. Regardless of where we finish this year, Ivan can hold his head up high ... he has put a good team around him and he's a seriously good person.

"We knew him to be a good family man. We know that if you google Ivan Cleary, you won't find any rubbish written. We know he's astute in the way he approaches the game and we knew he'd be a good coach."

From day one, Cleary took a get on or get lost approach with his players, which has culminated in almost 30 players leaving the club under his watch since 2012.

He's never been a fan of the superstar – no one is bigger than the team.

The adage that a champion team is better than a team of champions is a philosophy Cleary adheres by, which is why the Panthers were the only Australian-based team in the NRL without a player in Origin I.

He has brought in some hard-nosed footballers, premiership winners, veterans and leaders of men to help change the culture at the club.

"It was chaotic," Wilson said.

"Players were effectively picking the team before Ivan arrived. You can't have your kids in charge of the household, there's got to be a bit of discipline around and there wasn't any. We were poor in every measure. We were poor in how we approached it, in how we staffed it, our facilities ... everything was poor and the joint was in bad shape.

"So we just went methodically about bringing ourselves up to what we consider to be a modern sporting team. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer."

Like Canberra are experiencing at the moment, the Panthers too had trouble attracting talent to the foot of the mountains for a range of reasons.

However, the appointment of Gould as executive general manager of football has paved the way for the likes of Jamal Idris, Jamie Soward, Elijah Taylor, Peter Wallace, Dean Whare and Sika Manu to don the Panthers jersey under his watch.

He's the club's No.1 recruitment tool whose rugby league pedigree has proven difficult for many players to knock back.

"My nickname for Gus is the Pied Piper – people follow Gus and we're finding that players want to come here and be part of our group," Wilson said.

"He's absolutely huge for our recruitment. I tell Gus that I'm happy to invest money on what he wants, as long as I get a return – and I'm getting it. Josh Mansour didn't want to leave us.

"A couple of years ago we couldn't get people to come here, now they don't want to leave us. The boys are coming out and saying that they are happy, and that's half your battle. When you have to dig in, that comes to the fore because blokes are saying 'hang on, that's my mate over there I have to give him a hand'."

When Wilson and Gould first came together, they visited most rival clubs in search of answers and ideas.

Fans measure success by the number of premierships won; however the Panthers insist they have adopted the Broncos theory of basing success on consistently qualifying for finals football.

While they are a long way off from their 10-year plan, they are not afraid to dream big.

"We can be one of the best clubs in the country, not just in rugby league, but I'm talking all codes in 10 years time," Wilson said.

"When we got here, we went around and had a look at everyone else's operations, and Gus and I were dragging our backsides along the ground saying 'wow, we're such a far way away'. What I want in five years' time is people coming to us saying 'you're now the benchmark, how do we get to you?' In 10 years, we want to be the best. Nothing's out of reach. We're aspirational and we want Penrith to be aspirational with us."

SINCE IVAN CLEARY TOOK OVER IN 2012

OUT
Mitch Achurch
Chris Armit
Blake Austin
Travis Burns
Cameron Ciraldo
Lachlan Coote
Geoff Daniela
Sandor Earl
Tom Eisenhuth
Danny Galea
Michael Gordon
Michael Jennings
Luke Lewis
Clint Newton
Travis Robinson
Harry Seijka
Nafe Seluini
Shane Shackleton
Arana Taumata
Brad Tighe
Etuate Uaisele
Luke Walsh
Dayne Weston
Mose Masoe
James Roberts

IN
Lewis Brown
Isaac John
Jeremy Latimore
Sika Manu
Wes Naiqama
James Segeyaro
Dean Whare
Jamal Idris
Brent Kite
Kevin Naiqama
Tyrone Peachey
Will Smith
Jamie Soward
Elijah Taylor
Peter Wallace
Sam Anderson
Tom Humble

STAYED
Adam Docker
Nigel Plum
Tim Grant
Kevin Kingston,
Sam McKendry
Josh Mansour
David Simmons
Matt Robinson
Ryan Simpkins
Nathan Smith

JUNIORS WHO CAME THROUGH TO NRL
Matt Moylan
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak
Isaah Yeo
Bryce Cartwright

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league

[Titanic]

I wonder what our list of comings and goings since 2010 looks like?

[DIEHARD]

T minus 20mins until kick off.

[DIEHARD]

Not looking like a big crowd there.

[DIEHARD]

Good to see Albert Kelly warming up with the team. I have faith!

Hoping and expecting a big game from David Taylor. Hoping he busts into the Maroons too.

[DIEHARD]

Looks like Russell Crowe's drummers have invaded Robina Stadium.

[teke]

Zillllllololololololololol