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Panthers keep five-peat chances alive with elimination final win
Nicholas Quinlan • September 13th, 2025 10:20 pm
The Penrith Panthers have kept their season alive for another week and their chances at a historic five-peat, having defeated the New Zealand Warriors 24-8 in their do-or-die final at Go Media Stadium on Saturday.
While they were the lower seed and had to travel to Auckland for the match, the Panthers came into the match as favourites as they welcomed back the experienced duo of Brian To’o and Liam Martin into the line-up.
But it was Penrith who conceded the first score of the match through an error from Nathan Cleary.
That gave Tanah Boyd and the Warriors a penalty goal, which he converted with ease.
While the Warriors got the first score of the game, the Panthers seemed to gain more territory, placing New Zealand under plenty of pressure defensively.
And while they were able to hold out for a little while, Isaiah Papali’i would hit the gap in the Warriors’ defence to cross over under the sticks in the 27th minute to lead.
In the second half, the Panthers would double their score with Brad Schneider scoring after Warriors’ fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad triggered a six again through an offside within Penrith’s 10 metre line.
The Warriors would then strike back to bring the lead within an unconverted try, with Leka Halasima managing to use his running momentum to get the ball down.
After that, the Panthers would proceed to dominate the scoring. But it wasn’t without controversy.
In the 66th minute, Penrith cleared the ball from within their 20 metres, with the ball landing between the Warriors' defensive line and its last defenders.
The ball proceeded to bounce towards the Panthers, who saw Luke Garner pick up the ball, who then flicked it to Blaize Talagi.
The five-eighth used an AFL-style banana kick to get the ball free to To’o, who was able to set up Casey McLean for a game-breaking try.
But it was the initial play between Garner and Talagi that caused controversy with SEN League’s Joel Caine convinced that the ball had gone forward.
“It was a brilliant defensive set from the Warriors,” Caine exclaimed.
“The kick from Cleary came inside their own 20 (metres).
“The ball bounced. It sat perfectly for Garner. He linked up with a forward pass, and they are going to score a try and probably win the match.”
From there, the Panthers controlled the game to the finish, winning their 13th consecutive finals win in a row.
Reflecting post-game about the match, Brett Kimmorley felt the Panthers were able to win it in the second half by just being perfect.
“They’ve been perfect in the second half," he said.
“They were a bit rusty in the first half. They didn’t do their best and gave some bad penalties away, and maybe a little bit of discipline chat at half-time, and they’ve corrected that in the second half.
“And yes, you’ve got to make your own luck, but what about a couple of big saves on 40/20s and tries, and then you take a chance and score.
Following their win, the Panthers will take on the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in a semi-final.
The winner of that match will take on the winner of the qualifying final between the Canberra Raiders and the Brisbane Broncos, which takes place this Sunday.
