Panthers teammates Jaeman Salmon and Jarome Luai have been seen in a heated post-game argument after the reigning premiers went down in a thriller to Brisbane Broncos on Friday evening.
As each groups shook fingers after the Broncos’ 13-12 win at BlueBet Stadium, Channel 9 cameras captured Luai and Salmon in an argument the place expletives had been ‘beeped out’ by the broadcaster.
But premiership captain Paul Gallen mentioned the back-and-forth shouldn’t be overblown.
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“I understand we love it and we’re part of the media and we’re going to talk about it … but it’s rugby league. It’s a tough, brutal spot,” Gallen instructed Channel 9 post-game.
“These guys compete for a living, it’s what they do, they’re so competitive, testosterone-fuelled blokes that are trained to compete on every single play for 80 minutes of the game – and when something doesn’t go right they want to know why and they have a discussion about it. Who cares?”
“They care about the result, they care about the game, so just let it go.”
Four-time Dally M Medallist Johnathan Thurston added: “They (the Panthers) excelled the last two years, they played perfect footy about every time. So when someone misses their assignment, you want to know why you weren’t there.
“I think it’s just part and parcel of rugby league, you have those conversations … bury it and move on.”
While the Panthers scored a real contender for strive of the yr in entrance of a near-capacity crowd of 17,125, it appeared clear that life with out the hard-charging Viliame Kikau and clever ruck dodger Api Koroisau means a Panthers premiership three-peat can be removed from a cakewalk.
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary agreed that his workforce was disjointed however performed some good footy, too.
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“So, little bit of early season rust. The team’s different, too, especially at dummy-half. Short pre-season. Both games we’ve played, weather’s been bad. That all adds up,” Cleary mentioned
“We’ve got some work to do there but I’m sure we’ll do it.”
On the Panthers’ left edge the place Luke Garner was within the large footwear of Kikau, Cleary mentioned his Wests Tigers recruit would take some time to get used to his teammates – and vice versa.
“It definitely was an improvement on the last game. [But] it’s going to take ‘Garns’ a while to get used to how we play and the intensity we play. Definitely some steps there,” Cleary mentioned, including that the sport went all the way down to the wire and he didn’t don’t assume the workforce misplaced any mates from the hassle.
— with NCA Newswire
Source: www.foxsports.com.au