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As the 2024 NRL season continues into Round 4, Real or Not looks at how well the Panthers coped without Nathan Cleary, the ongoing troubles at South Sydney and the difficulties in maintaining the magic of suburban grounds. Read on as we tackle some of the big talking points in this week's NRL Real or Not.
The Panthers are going to struggle without Nathan Cleary NOT REAL: It didn't take long for the Panthers to prove they would be alright while Nathan Cleary was out injured. Just 16 minutes into the game, Dylan Edwards slotted over his second conversion from out wide. Edwards had just scored Penrith's second try of the night with some individual magic on the end of some hot potato football. Cleary's replacement, Brad Schneider, was doing his job taking on the majority of the kicking, while Jarome Luai took it upon himself to provide the attacking spark. The Panthers were up 12-0, against one of their main premiership challengers, all while missing arguably the game's best player.  Early in the second half they didn't need Cleary for two sweeping backline movements, which finished in Sunia Turuva's second and third tries of the game. Edwards slipped up missing one of the conversions from out wide, but even Cleary has been known to miss those occasionally. Until a couple of late tries to the Roosters, the Panthers had answers for everything they threw at them. Schneider's kicking game continued to tick all of the boxes and the team in the pink jersey continued on like a well-oiled machine. What other team in any sport could lose their best player and leader and still comfortably defeat one of the leading contenders? It is hard to see the Panthers winning a fourth-straight premiership, until you try to name the team that will stop them.
The Rabbitohs are heading towards sacking their coach REAL: We've all seen it before, at the Rabbitohs and at other clubs, when there is something not quite right going on behind the scenes. It doesn't take much for a team to fall apart in a sport that demands absolute commitment to the cause. A disgruntled player here or there, a decline in effort, players questioning why they are left to carry the burden, doubt over the direction a coach is taking. A club can go from highly competitive to pushovers in no time and recovery can be painful. Usually it is the coach who takes the fall.  All kinds of rumours have been circulating the Rabbitohs as they endure a 0-3 start to the season. Last year, after leading the competition halfway through, they crashed and failed to make the finals. Assistant coach Sam Burgess departed, suggesting that some players were being given preferential treatment. Coach Jason Demetriou, who was partly responsible for the decision to let Adam Reynolds go to the Broncos, has now dropped the player he had in mind to replace him, Lachlan Ilias. This week they face the Bulldogs who had a good win last week over the Titans. The Rabbitohs are short-priced favourites to take care of the Bulldogs, but if they fail, you can expect the proverbial to hit the fan at Redfern. Demetriou will be the target and his tenure at the club will be under enormous pressure. But why Demetriou? Because that is how rugby league works, it is much easier to find a new coach and hope he can reinvigorate the current roster than it is to sack all of the underachieving players and find their replacements.
 Suburban grounds conundrum virtually unsolvable REAL: Anyone who has ever experienced a home team victory at a suburban ground knows the palpable passion that shakes you to your very core. The roar of the crowd is amplified by the intimacy of the surrounds and the shared joy combines to give an enhanced sense of belonging. Whether you are jammed in on one of the hills or seated in the acoustic shell of an old grandstands, a suburban ground cannot be matched for atmosphere by a cavernous stadium, even when full. I have been to packed houses at the old SFS, at Homebush and at AAMI Stadium in Brisbane and none of them compare to my experiences at a full Leichhardt Oval or Belmore Sports Ground. So how do we ensure that future generations have a chance to experience these unique venues? The act of any major redevelopment is self-defeating. For example, you can't add grandstands where hills currently take pride of place, as the hills are fundamental to the experience. The best you can do is spend a large sum of money replacing the current main grandstand, which may help with a few extra corporate facilities, but won't add a great deal to the overall capacity. At Brookvale they added a new grandstand at one end of the ground, but that is problematic at Leichhardt and Belmore due to their very limited footprints. Belmore, for example has no room at either end of the ground, being framed by the railway lines at one end and a residential street at the other. Leichhardt could possibly redevelop the southern end, but that would mean demolishing two historical grandstands which are intrinsic to the ground's character. The bottom line is no one wants to spend money trying to fix up these suburban grounds, when there is no clear financial benefit. Unfortunately, nostalgia and good feelings have no value on the spreadsheets of the corporate word.
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