The Penrith Panthers head into the 2025 NRL season looking to not only make their 6th straight NRL Grand Final in a row, win their 5th NRL Grand Final in a row, but also continue their winning streak of 12 straight finals games in a row, something that has never been done in the history of the game.
That is a lot of football….
To kick off their campaign this season the Panthers have played no trial games at all. They have had opposed training sessions internally with their lower grade sides, and had a similar hit out against the Warrington Wolves over in Las Vegas, but these are far from the normal trials which we see clubs play in which are important to get players up to match fitness ahead of a season.
So, don’t be shocked if the Panthers look a little clunky out of the games this season.
Their first hit out against the Cronulla Sharks in Vegas will be interesting, but not a great marker to where both teams stand this season. The Sharks, who the Panthers beat in the Preliminary Final last year, look a little better this year, so they should be one of the top 4 teams again in 2024.
The Panthers then will have 12 days until their second match of the season with the Sydney Roosters. While they should beat a Roosters side I don’t expect to make the finals, the travel back from Las Vegas and the disrupted pre season will make it a little bit of a tougher content than we would normally see.
In round three the Panther take on the Melbourne Storm in a 2024 NRL Grand Final rematch. Hopefully the Panthers have settled into the season by this point because this should be an epic, sold out game down in Melbourne between the two best teams in the competition.
From there the Panthers take on the South Sydney Rabbitohs, who don’t look good on paper thus year at least, before taking on a North Queensland Cowboys side who I think will be a smokey to do very, very well this season.
Keep in mind all of this will be happening as the Panthers have no home games this season. With their home ground at Penrith being re-built, they’ll be taking over Parramatta Stadium for the next two years.
Could we see the Panthers with a record of 2 wins and 3 losses in their first five games of the season? Totally. Will it matter come finals time? No.
This Panthers side is completely focused on NRL Finals football. As long as they finish in the top 4 teams this season, I think they’ll be happy with what ever their season star looks like.
