‘Big Three’ lead Penrith to statement win over scrappy Brisbane

Penrith’s dynasty is very much alive and kicking after their proven stars orchestrated a dominant 26-0 win over woeful defending premiers Brisbane.

The Panthers led the bumbling Broncos 18-0 at half-time at Suncorp Stadium with the “Big Three” of Dylan Edwards, Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo in command.

Fellow four-time title winner Brian To’o was also enormous on the wing in front of 45,566 fans, who were mostly silent.

The match was like a rewind back to the 2021-2024 premiership years.

Brisbane came back from six deficits of 10 points or more on the way to last year’s title but the hosts made constant errors, appeared sluggish and were woeful under the high ball.

These sides have played two of the most memorable finals of recent years. The Panthers came back from the dead to win the 2023 grand final 26-24 and the Broncos, down 14-0 at half-time, won 16-14 in last year’s preliminary final in Brisbane.

There was an “old firm” feel to the good things the Panthers did.

Edwards has started the season on fire and clearly outplayed opposite number Reece Walsh, who was hardly sighted. Edwards had his desire, elusiveness and pace all dialled in and the Panthers looked so much better as a result.

Lock Yeo dominated the middle of the field and organising half Cleary controlled it all with his kicking game particularly effective.

Penrith centre Casey McLean scored first after winger Thomas Jenkins, a late inclusion, leapt above Walsh after a Cleary bomb.

Brisbane winger Deine Mariner had a shocker and struggled under the Cleary high balls. One of his spills proved costly.

Co-captain Cleary, in his 100th game as skipper, gave early ball to Edwards who stepped his way through with a great turn of speed.

In the 40th minute it was young gun five-eighth Blaize Talagi who lobbed a composed cross-field kick for Jenkins to score.

The Broncos only kept themselves in it with scrambling defence. Their attack was terrible.

Coach Michael Maguire had named Ben Hunt on the bench but started him at five-eighth ahead of Ezra Mam. The move didn’t work. The Broncos’ spine never connected. Walsh was often gang tackled.

He threw one slick pass that centre Kotoni Staggs almost scored from, but desperate defence by McLean saved the day.

Jenkins, who had a cracker, intercepted a Walsh pass to score his second try to complete the dominance.

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The full-time whistle puts the Broncos out of their misery, and Penrith take a very strong start to the season with a rout of the first team to have beaten them to a premiership in five years.

Brisbane are reportedly the first defending premier to be held to nil in the opening round of the season in 70 years, a remarkable stat considering the attacking talent in this side.

But their discipline with and without the ball were awful tonight. Penrith weren’t close to their best either, but did the little things right more often than not and came away with a very dominant win.

Panthers win 26-0 at Suncorp Stadium

It’s been a strange start to a title defence year for Brisbane – Payne Haas and Adam Reynolds have already announced they’ll depart at the end of the year, the Broncos lost the World Club Challenge (to a team that was then smashed 58-6 in Las Vegas), and now they face a shutout in round one, admittedly against a team that are the modern masters of grinding out a win.

It’s very, very early days but the signs are not good for the premiers, although they’ll be confident of bouncing back against a team that is also chasing a big bounceback on Thursday night – the Parramatta Eels.

In the meantime, Brisbane find themselves defending their tryline again as Penrith shift right, but Dylan Edwards – possibly the best player tonight with 223 run metres and a try – knocks on after being tackled.

But then it gets worse for the hosts, Reece Walsh trying a long pass that is intercepted by Tom Jenkins who runs clear to score his second try of the night.

Panthers 24, Broncos 0 with four minutes left

The error count tonight is 13 from Brisbane, nine from Penrith – meaning we’ve had more handling errors than points through the first three quarters of this game. Not quite the blockbuster contest we’d been hoping for so far. Still, with superstars like Nathan Cleary and Reece Walsh involved, that could change at any moment.

But in the meantime the grind continues, Brisbane penalised for offside – it was initially a six-again call, but then Penrith then knocked on so they get an actual penalty instead, meaning two points, such is the way of the modern NRL – and Nathan Cleary slots another goal.

Continuing the trend, Blaize Talagi knocks on from the resulting kick-off.

Panthers 20, Broncos 0 with 20 minutes left

A half chance from Brisbane after a great charge from Payne Haas up the middle, with Adam Reynolds sending up a nicely placed bomb towards Penrith’s tryline. Several Broncos go up for it but Kotoni Staggs can’t handle it clearly and it’s a turnover.

Then Penrith get a little fortunate with a successful captain’s challenge to reverse a knock-on call after Tom Jenkins appeared to lose possession in a tackle – a chant goes up from the Suncorp Stadium crowd that shows they’re not on the bunker’s side with this one – but the Broncos are forced to take it out from their own end again rather than getting a fresh set in prime attacking position.

Brisbane make a half break down the right but winger Deine Mariner is carried over the sideline by four Penrith defenders. It’s just not going right for the home side.

Panthers 18, Broncos 0 with 27 minutes left

The second half is underway, and the Broncos manage to get through an error-free set to get things started. That will be their main focus this half – they have great attacking weapons if they can control the ball, but won’t be able to compete with Penrith if the errors keep coming.

No surprises that the Panthers’ first set ends with another Nathan Cleary bomb, after a couple of tries came that way in the first half, but this time Reece Walsh takes it easily at the back.

Panthers 18, Broncos 0 with 37 minutes left

The Warriors have dominated the Sydney Roosters from the first to the final whistle in Auckland to start their NRL season in the best possible way.

The Roosters showed class at times, but then looked all at sea on other occasions as they struggled for continuity, particularly in defence on Friday night at Go Media Stadium.

The Warriors chalked up four tries to one to lead 22-6 at the break with an inspired performance across the field.

In fine conditions in front of a boisterous crowd of 24,112 it was the home side who scored first as Tanah Boyd spied a gap, sold an easy dummy and zipped through after 12 minutes.

Read the full report here