The fourth-placed Penrith Panthers have put paid to the third-placed Canberra Raiders' Jersey Flegg Cup aspirations for 2025, with a convincing 32-18 win in the Minor Semi-final at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday.
Winger Nick Murphy was the star for the Panthers, scoring four tries for the victors.
Despite the Raiders calling eight players back from last week's heroic upset win over Newtown in The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for this clash, they were unable to turn their season around following last week's 16-10 loss to the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.
The Panthers set up the win with a dominant first half performance and probably should have gone into the break leading by more than 12-6, before skipping out to a 32-12 lead in the second half to secure their spot in next week's Preliminary Final against the Sharks.
Penrith opened the scoring in the eighth minute when a long cut-out pass from Zac Lamont found winger Nick Murphy, who snuck in under the cover defence to score in the northwest corner. With Jirah Liddaird's sideline conversion, the Panthers led 6-0.
Penrith shocked Canberra with back-to-back tries in consecutive sets when a clearing kick took a wicked bounce and on the spot was Murphy to collect the ball, racing 35 metres to score behind the posts and double the lead to 12-0 after just 12 minutes.
A loose carry from Penrith allowed winger Sylas Simon to find open space from the regather and streak 40 metres to score in the southeast corner and reduce the gap to 12-6 after 17 minutes, following fullback Braydan Darmody's sideline conversion.
In a telling moment in the context of the game, the Raiders had five attacking sets inside the Panthers' 20 but determined defence enabled Penrith to take a 12-6 lead into the main break.
The Panthers scored first after the break in the 49th minute with Murphy grabbing a hat-trick after play shifted on the last, the ball moving freely from one side of the field to the other, before another Lamont cut-out pass enabled Murphy to dive over in the southeast corner to give Penrith a priceless 16-6 lead.
Some brutal defence earned Penrith a kick restart from Canberra before a penalty inside the Raiders’ 20 enabled the Panthers to take the biggest lead of the game, when a looping pass allowed Murphy to score his fourth try of the afternoon to push the lead out to 20-6 after 59 minutes.
As they did in the first half, the Panthers scored off consecutive sets when a Tyler Bunting bomb was unable to be collected by the Raiders. Back-rower Delahia Wigmore took possession 20 metres out to storm through several defenders and crash over out wide, with replacement forward Kye Raven converting to put Penrith up 26-6 with 19 minutes remaining.
The Raiders needed a quick hit back and they did just that when prop Caleb Garvie was back-slammed into the in-goal, but still managed to ground the ball next to the posts to reduce the gap to 26-12 with 16 minutes remaining.
But the Panthers sealed their spot in next week's Preliminary Final when Bunting provided Siotame Hansen with a terrific ball and the back-rower ran the perfect line to score next to the posts from close range to lead 32-18 with five minutes left.
Canberra weren't completely done, and fullback Braydan Darmody was on hand to clean up a loose Panthers offload and streak 65 metres to score untouched under the posts to provide the final score-line in favour of the Panthers, 32-18.
Talking points
- The Canberra Raiders would have come into this game full of confidence given eight of their players returned from last week's epic upset win over Newtown Jets in the NSW Cup.
- The Penrith Panthers came into this game with an unchanged 17 from last week's 32-12 win over Parramatta.
- Both teams enjoyed one win a piece during 2025 – Panthers winning 34-12 in Round Nine before the Raiders gained revenge in Round 26, winning 40-18 in a clash that condemned Penrith to fourth place instead of a top three spot.
Key moment
The Panthers looked strong throughout the opening half, but the Raiders could have easily levelled the scores in the back end having five consecutive attacking sets inside Penrith's 20. But the men in black showed plenty of defensive resolve to hold on and head into the sheds with a 12-6 lead and were never headed from there, outscoring Canberra 20-12.
What’s next?
The Panthers, having won their two elimination finals, now face the second-placed Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in next week's Preliminary Final. The winner will be taking on Minor Premiers the Melbourne Storm the following week in the Jersey Flegg Grand Final.
For the Raiders, back-to-back finals losses to Cronulla and Penrith brings their 2025 season to an end.
