Live: ‘The premiers are back’: Dominant Panthers exact revenge on Roosters

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary is talking to Fox post-game, and there just might be the hint of a twinkle in his eye again.

“Probably since Vegas, we hadn’t really played the style of game that we like – certainly partly our fault for sure,” Cleary says.

“Tonight, I thought the first half was a really solid game of footy…and in the second half the way it went, the boys found that rhythm and remembered what it was like to actually win.”

The relief is written all over Cleary’s face – certainly a whole lot more optimistic than he did here.

It was a dominant performance from the Panthers in the end.

And Scott Sorensen, responsible for that magic flick pass in the lead up to Dylan Edward’s try, is just relieved to be back in the winner’s circle after five weeks out of it.

“Obviously it’s been a couple of weeks so it’s nice that we could get on top tonight and show a little bit more resilience,” Sorenson tells ABC Sport.

“It was nice to do that and come away with the win and hopefully set us up for the next couple weeks.”

It’s the Panthers first win since Vegas.

Paul Alamoti kicks a penalty goal to end the match and that makes it 40-12 to the Panthers over the Roosters, ending the five-game losing streak against the team that started it back in round two.

This game was a warning shot to the rest of the league that, as Kevin Walters declared on Fox Sports, “the premiers are back”.

Penrith would have just wanted to win this game, end the losing streak and move on, but the second half looked like the Panthers of old as they turned the screws, kicked to corners and never released the pressure.

“The last few weeks we’ve been trying so hard, but it’s sort of been misplaced energy, it hasn’t been really connected. I think we’ve been forcing it too much to try and get that win,” Nathan Cleary tells Fox Sports.

“Tonight we wanted to just put in a really good performance and let the rest take care of itself, and just get that feeling back of what it feels like to be a Panther and the way we want to play.”

They regather the kick-off, they regather the dropout.

And now they force another one as James Tedesco tries to clean up a grubber, but slips over and the ball balloons up over him.

The Roosters get some relief as Brad Schneider is penalised for taking James Tedesco out off the ball as he chased the short dropout.

Siua Wong gives a way a piggyback penalty with a flop on Tom Jenkins and the Panthers get a trip upfield.

They spin it left and the Roosters appear to have the numbers but Casey McLean steps inside and beats Robert Toia to slam the ball down.

There’s a bit of push and shove that seems to be centred around Dom Young, who was walking past the celebrations and then spun around to confront someone. Not sure what went down there, but it’s all dispersed now. Roosters getting a bit frustrated it seems.

The Panthers line up to the left and they have the Roosters stripped for numbers, but Dom Young jams in on Scott Sorensen. He looks in trouble, but he pulls off a gorgeous around-the-back pass to Dylan Edwards for the fullback to score.

Better than Kodi Nikorima’s last night? Maybe. What I do know though, is the Panthers are up and about.

“The premiers are back. They are back,” Kevin Walters says in commentary for Fox.

Penrith fields the ball on their 40m line and truck it upfield.

Dylan Edwards gets a key offload to Izack Tago and it puts the Panthers in perfect field position on the last.

Nathan Cleary brings his crossfield kick down on Sandon Smith, who makes a glorious catch but is immediately dumped into the in-goal.

Nathan Cleary’s kick is too shallow, but Paul Alamoti manages to tap back. Moses Leota chases the bouncing ball and, rather than grabbing the ball and taking the tackle, he expertly bats it back to Isaah Yeo, who grubbers into the goalpost padding and Blaize Talagi flies through to touch down.

This is classic Penrith.

Even if you get a sniff, they’ll hit right back.

Even if the ball goes to ground, they’re still a threat.

The Roosters call an audible at the scrumbase, with winger Dom Young sprinting into feed the scrum as the entire backline gets into shape to the left.

But Connor Watson picks it up at lock and they go short side. Watson fakes to Young and pops a ball back inside to Rob Toia to dive over for his first NRL try.

So, they’re not exactly the Penrith Panthers of old, because Dylan Edwards has made a poorly timed, poorly placed error as he runs the ball off his line.

Mitch Kenny sees James Tedesco in the line, he steps out of dummy half and drops the ball on his toe. Naufahu Whyte tries to run Papali’i off the ball to give his outside backs a chance to clean up, but they’re nowhere to be seen and Papali’i dives on the ball.

The Panthers are rolling now. Looking very ominous.

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Mark Nawaqanitawase is cracked in the back of the head by Scott Sorensen as he goes to ground in a sort of hybrid crusher/high shot, but Gerard Sutton says no penalty, further frustrating the Roosters.

So they’re forced to kick from around halfway and Hugo Savala’s bomb is caught by Tom Jenkins, who offloads to Casey McLean, who flies upfield to get the Panthers on the front foot.

That’s what I was talking about with the Victor Radley escort penalty. Nathan Cleary does exactly the same thing and jogs into Mark Nawaqanitawase to deny him a jump at the ball, but because he pretended to be looking at the ball it’s not a penalty.

Dom Young takes a charge on the second tackle and Lindsay Smith slips up too high.

It’s little more than a love tap, but a very obvious penalty and the Roosters are gifted 40 or so metres.

Victor Radley is penalised for an escort hat ran Liam Martin out of an aerial contest.

I’m not sure about that one. I feel like we see a lot of those every game. James Tedesco is not best pleased.

Alas, the penalty is blown and Nathan Cleary slots the goal for a 14-6 lead.

A round-seven game has no right being this important and gripping.

With his second conversion of the night, Nathan Cleary has scored the four points required to take him past Ryan Girdler as the Penrith Panthers’ leading point-scorer.

It’s a remarkable achievement for a 27-year-old, who could have 10 more years of rugby league in him.

But he’s more focused on the task at hand.

“t’s pretty cool I guess. [Penrith’s] become home for me. But there’s a bigger task to do,” he tells Fox.

Here’s the top five:

1. 1.Nathan Cleary — 1,573
2. 2.Ryan Girdler — 1,572
3. 3.Greg Alexander — 1,104
4. 4.Michael Gordon — 798
5. 5.Preston Campbell — 613

A chorus of boos greets the half-time siren.

This Roosters crowd are clearly still stinging from that non-call on James Tedesco, which denied the Tri Colours a penalty try midway through the first half.

Only moments later, the Panthers went over through Paul Alamoti and the resulting Nathan Cleary conversion ensured scores were level.

A second, almost identical Alamoti try gave Penrith the lead in the dying moments of the first half and Cleary again converted to become the club’s highest ever point scorer.

A real arm wrestle at the Sydney Football Stadium.

We’ll be back with second-half football before you can say “justice for James Tedesco.”

The Panthers are pressing in these dying first half minutes.

Thanks to some quick thinking from Nathan Cleary and Dylan Edwards, they are circling through the middle and working it out wide right.

And just as he did for Penrith’s first try, Paul Alamoti is ghosting in and putting it down with ease.

Non-existent defending there from the Roosters.

And now, Nathan Cleary has the opportunity to become the Panthers’ highest ever point scorer.

Unsurprisingly, he converts with ease and he has 1573 career points for Penrith.