Panthers' Griffin praises halves defence

Mar 24, 2017 - 4:33 PM The attacking genius of Penrith's young halves is sourced from proving their ability to handle the defensive rigours of the NRL, according to coach Anthony Griffin.

Panthers five-eighth Te Maire Martin turned in his best performance since returning from major shoulder surgery in his team's 40-0 hammering of Newcastle on Friday night.

However Griffin was just as pleased with his team's shutout - their second in three weeks - than the unanswered seven tries they ran in at Pepper Stadium.

"You always love to see a zero scoreline," Griffin said post-game.

"It's not easy to do at this level. Newcastle, they're a very good side. They come into this game second in line breaks, they've scored 20 points a game.

"I thought we were a lot more effective in attack tonight, just the way we ran some of our sets, and some of the mentality we had to play a little bit more direct this week."

It's a observation that is mirrored in the Panthers' burgeoning halves in Martin and Nathan Cleary, who have played less than 30 NRL games combined.

Martin missed four tackles in a defeat against the Sydney Roosters last week but didn't have a fault in his assignments against the Knights, while Cleary missed one tackle.

"The hardest thing for a young half when he first comes in is defensive workload because oppositions run a lot of traffic at them," Griffin said.

"They get a lot of confidence then they know they've got the game covered defensively. It doesn't come before then. That's just the brutality at this level for them to be able to defend.

"And he's getting a lot better at it."

Griffin said he was happy to see his team bounce back from the sapping loss to the Roosters.

"The danger of last week, in a really physical game and getting beat late in the game, it can be a bit heartbreaking sometimes and knock their spirit and confidence around," Griffin said.

"I was more wanting to see another strong performance on the back of last week rather than worrying about this week."

Source: AAP