Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has gone into bat for young stars Casey McLean and Blaize Talagi in response to questions about Penrith’s suspect left edge defence.

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Only the Dragons conceded more tries down the left this season than the Panthers and that side of the field was again under the pump at times against the Bulldogs last Sunday.

Broncos centre Kotoni Staggs has already fired a warning shot this week, stating he and halfback Adam Reynolds will target that side.

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However, Cleary has every faith that McLean and Talagi will figure it out.

“I don’t think it’s a real scoop that our left edge gets targeted. It’s been happening for about 20 weeks in a row,” the Panthers coach said.

“The good thing about those boys is that they learn on the run and learn from each situation.

“I actually felt like our left edge was responsible for creating a lot of pressure in the first half and there’s a bit of context, our intensity dropped a bit and theirs picked up. That was all part of it.

“But yeah great lessons again and I’m sure they will be put to use again this week.

“Putting two rookies next to each other probably wasn’t something in my mind early this season but they’ve grown together Casey and Blaize.”

Cleary said that while McLean and Talagi (16 missed tackles combined) were found out against the Bulldogs, he praised their defensive pressure in the first half, believing it was a big contributor to Penrith building a big lead early on.

“They’ve been targeted every week. It’s no real scoop when you look at our two edges in terms of experience,’ he said.

“Our boys have learnt through experience and they’re not afraid to make mistakes.

“As I said, last week their defence on the edge in the first half was the reason we were able to build pressure and build a good lead.”

Staggs ‘warning’ to Panthers left edge | 03:17

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Cleary also labelled the two-day gap between prelim finals as “unfair” to the winner of the Penrith-Brisbane clash but will be looking on the bright side if they win on Sunday.

“My first thought was that it was a good problem to have,” Cleary said.

“It’s definitely unfair, but it is what it is.

There’s different ways you can look at it but at the end of the day if that’s our problem next week, I’ll be pretty happy.”