They’ve fessed up, taken ownership and acknowledged the lesson learned.
Now, the Panthers are primed and ready to redeem their pride with a scintillating performance against the Canberra Raiders at Centrebet Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Lock Cameron Ciraldo said the team hadn’t let their disastrous loss to the Melbourne Storm last weekend, in which the side trailed 34-0 at half-time, rattle the confidence they’d built during their back-to-back wins in the preceding fortnight.
‘‘As soon as we got through our video of the Melbourne trip, we focused our attention to this week’s game and being positive leading into that,’’ Ciraldo said.
‘‘Obviously being down in Melbourne was a big lesson and the only way to move forward is to learn from that but put it in the back of our minds and remember we won two before that.’’
Ciraldo said dominating the Raiders’ hard-hitters would be crucial to shutting Canberra down and clawing a win.
‘‘They’re obviously a very big and physical side so the way we match them physically in the forward pack will go a long way to determining the result,’’ he said.
‘‘We can’t dish up what we did last week, we really need to come with a good attitude and be prepared to rip in.’’
The Panthers have won 30 of their 60 matches against the Raiders but their success rate at Centrebet Stadium is more favourable, with 16 wins from 26 home clashes.
‘‘I’m confident about the team we’ve got going into every game,’’ Ciraldo said.
‘‘For us, it’s just worrying about our game and preparing the best we can to put on the best performance we can.’’
Reflecting on last weekend’s first half massacre, Ciraldo said the side was simply bowled over after the Storm’s try in the 34th second and were never able to regain their composure.
‘‘It all happened so fast,’’ he said.
‘‘We were just off our game and ran into a side that was running hot.
‘‘We really went down there with high hopes and just that first couple of tries really rattled us and I don’t think we really recovered.''
Source: Penrith Star
Topic: #Panthers 'Ready to Crush Raiders'
