Last week the NRL world was beside itself after a Friday night double header that promised a night of high intensity and finals quality football and completely delivered. The Panthers and the Raiders battled it out into golden point extra time, where we saw an extraordinary finish. The Bulldogs looked on their way to a convincing loss at halftime, before fighting back against the Storm and almost grabbing them on the line.
At the end of the round, everyone caught their breath and looked towards this week to see what the NRL draw would deliver. And there it was, standing out like a jewel on the first night of Round 26, the reigning premier Panthers up against the Bulldogs, with both sides unexpectedly fighting to avoid a third-straight loss on the way to the finals. This would be another test of the Bulldogs' premiership aspirations and provide further answers on whether the Panthers really were in the running for a fifth-straight title. Bring. It. On.
However. The Panthers had other ideas. The first sign that something was amiss came on Monday when an assortment of gambling agencies started reporting suspicious plunges on the Bulldogs at the originally posted price of $2.30 for the win. That price started to tumble once rumours spread that the Panthers were going to rest players. It plummeted to $1.08 once the official teams came out on Tuesday afternoon, with the Panthers naming 16 players who weren't in last week's 17-man squad. The gambling agencies had been stung, as information leaked out across the rugby league world.
What was more damaging to the game and the millions of fans who finance the whole enterprise, was the slap in the face this resting of an entire team represented. Supporters of the Panthers extolled the brilliance of coach Ivan Cleary as clearly proven by the last four years. Others explained that as there were no rules broken, the club was perfectly within its rights to rest everyone with a gruelling finals run lying ahead.
And so, with Thursday Night Football itself a struggling concept, the Penrith NSW Cup team ran out onto Accor Stadium to face the Bulldogs, who were a win away from cementing a Top 4 position. The crowd of over 23,000 was healthy enough, with the majority Bulldogs fans caught up in the fever of a rare and rapidly approaching finals appearance. But the steam was completely missing. The inevitable Bulldogs victory would only be tested if they had a complete meltdown against their lesser opponents. Instead of a finals preview the crowd and the audience at home were dished up a farcical clash with all the gravitas of an early season trial game.
The Bulldogs looking to find their best form ahead of the finals, found it difficult early to assert their ascendancy against the inexperienced Panthers. A couple of errors, compounded by a penalty and a six again call saw the home team under all sorts of pressure, but their much vaunted defence managed to hold on.
The Bulldogs were first to score, with Josh Curren splitting the defence on halfway before almost blowing the timing of his pass to Lachlan Galvin who raced away. But, generally, the Panthers were defending well, swarming in numbers, in the well-established Penrith manner. The Bulldogs were typically clunky in attack, and stopped on a number of occasions when tries looked certain.
Frustration started to creep into the blue and whites. Here they were, a team set to finish in the Top 4, being challenged by a team of reserve graders.
The Bulldogs second try came on the back of a mountain of possession and all the territory. An errant pass bounced up for Stephen Crichton who took off down the sideline before firing a pass inside to Connor Tracey who found Jacob Preston inside again for the second four pointer. Preston would go on to score three tries for the night, consistently finding a weakness in the Panthers' line that would not have been there in the first grade edition.
Halfway through the second half the scattered Panthers fans that were in attendance had a chance to cheer. Daine Laurie dummied before firing a cut out pass to Paul Alamoti on the wing. His opposite number, Marcelo Montoya, stabbed at thin air, as the Panthers winger strolled over untouched. One of the best defences in the league had conceded a try to the Panthers reserves. Following an awful Bulldogs handling error at the other end of the field, the Panthers looked to be in again off a high kick, before the bunker found a knock on in the lead-up.
The Bulldogs eventually tallied up a 28-4 victory, securing a Top 4 position, but losing star winger Jacob Kiraz to an ankle injury. The crowd filtered out of the stadium, wondering whether they had received value for the all money they forked out on tickets. The viewers at home left doubting the value of their cable and streaming subscriptions. The boffins at Nine fearing the drop in ratings they would have to explain to their advertisers.
The NRL is in the entertainment business, it survives by presenting its audience with top notch sporting theatre. In the fiercely contested battle for eyeballs on screens and bums on seats, the league can not afford to take its audience for granted. Allowing a team to make a mockery of a game by resting its entire first grade squad is telling that audience that they are not the most important part of the picture.
The Panthers might be running a very successful football club, but the NRL are trying to grow a profitable competition. You simply can't run a successful professional league without an audience.