denied in controversial fashion<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe scheming hooker kicked for himself from dummy-half before toeing the ball forward once again to score. <\/p>\n
Just when it looked like Cook had caught To\u2019o napping, the bunker ruled that the Panthers winger actually had possession of the ball when it was kicked out of his hands by the Dragons rake.<\/p>\n
Cook could not believe the decision, nor could fans on social media who were adamant he was robbed of a brilliant individual moment in Magic Round. <\/p>\n
Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary conceded a big, and emotional, week for the club had taken its toll with his side producing a performance below the standard expected of the powerhouse club. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, coach Ivan Cleary dropped a bombshell about his future at Penrith, revealing he would walk away from the NRL at the end of 2027. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little bit flat, it\u2019s been a really big week,\u201d Nathan said after the match.<\/p>\n
Young & Cook on half-time no-try call | 05:44<\/p>\n
BIG HITS<\/p>\n
BLUES UNSCATHED<\/p>\n
If losing superstar centre Latrell Mitchell for Origin game one wasn\u2019t big enough of a blow for the Blues, powerhouse Panthers winger Brian To\u2019o momentarily sent a scare through the NSW Origin camp on Sunday night. <\/p>\n
To\u2019o came reeling out of an ugly looking tackle from Dragons\u2019 forwards Emre Guler and Toby Couchman, clutching at his leg. <\/p>\n
Thankfully, To\u2019o was able to shake it off and finish the game without any other issues. <\/p>\n
The rest of Daley\u2019s Blues contingent, including Nathan Cleary, Isaiah Yeo and Dylan Edwards. <\/p>\n
Players will jet straight into NSW camp on Monday morning after remaining in Brisbane after Sunday night\u2019s clash. <\/p>\n
Blues on the fringe Casey McLean and Tom Jenkins were two of Penrith\u2019s best. McLean finished with 150 metres, six tackle busts and two linebreaks. While try-scoring machine Jenkins took his 2026 try tally to 18 tries after bagging a double on Sunday night. <\/p>\n
‘Made it hard for us!’ – Ivan Cleary | 05:48<\/p>\n
EFFORT ERRORS<\/p>\n
It was a mostly unhappy night for the Dragons\u2019 back five. <\/p>\n
It started with Setu Tu not even attempting to contest a high ball early in the first-half. <\/p>\n
Instead Tu left the contest to Penrith winger Tom Jenkins, who opened the scoring in the corner. <\/p>\n
They\u2019re the types of lapses in effort that will hurt a side against elite opposition. <\/p>\n
Jenkins, who added two more tries to his try-tally on Sunday night, showed Tu exactly how it\u2019s done later in the first half. <\/p>\n
The in-form Panthers winger defused a bomb, with defenders zeroing in, in the wet with complete confidence. <\/p>\n
Christian Tuipulotu had his issues under the high ball but made up for it with an impressive effort, the winger beat three Panthers defenders to somehow ground the ball in the left-hand corner, keeping his side in the contest in the second half. <\/p>\n
RED ZONE PANIC<\/p>\n
The Dragons are still winless but Sunday night\u2019s performance was close to the best that the under-siege outfit has produced all season. <\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t perfect from Craig Young\u2019s men by any means. But the Dragons managed to stay in the contest when many expected Penrith to blow them out of the water. <\/p>\n
They had plenty of tackles in the Panthers\u2019 red zone \u2013 a total of 23 tackles \u2013 but only managed a single try to Tuipulotu. <\/p>\n
When the Dragons weren\u2019t coughing up the ball or pushing a pass in good territory, their fifth tackle options left little to be desired and did not pose any real threat to the Panthers defensive line, especially in the first half. <\/p>\n
In the wet, skipper Clint Gutherson pushed a pass on the third tackle, catching Valentine Holmes unawares and giving up cheap possession to Penrith.<\/p>\n
RELIVE ALL THE ACTION FROM OUR LIVE BLOG BELOW. CAN\u2019T SEE IT? CLICK HERE!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St George Illawarra\u2019s Damien Cook had the magic in Brisbane but none of the luck, as a clunky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-677212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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