{"id":137974,"date":"2021-10-02T22:37:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T22:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=137974"},"modified":"2021-10-02T23:57:52","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T23:57:52","slug":"busted-panthers-silver-lining-for-grand-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=137974","title":{"rendered":"'Busted' Panthers' silver lining for grand final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eighth Immortal Andrew Johns believes clubs should take great interest in an up-and-coming youngster that has been called upon to help the "busted" Panthers<\/a> ahead of Sunday's NRL grand final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mid-year Panthers recruit Tevita Pangai Junior ruled himself out of the season decider due to injury, preferring not to push himself unnecessarily while 21-year-old Kiwi Spencer Leniu was waiting in the wings, ready and raring to go.<\/p>\n

Johns has little faith Penrith can topple South Sydney in the grand final, with injuries stacking up in the squad leaving them "busted", but the league legend saw Leniu as a potential star in the making.<\/p>\n

"I applaud Tevita for making the call early so it's not a disruption. The young guy Spencer Leniu… if I was a club he's a guy I'd be buying," Johns said on Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n

"I think he's a tremendous talent."<\/p>\n

\"Spencer<\/p>\n

Along with Pangai Junior, Brian To'o is carrying an ankle injury that had him in a cast this week, Nathan Cleary's shoulder isn't 100 per cent, James Fisher-Harris is dealing with a knee complaint and fullback Dylan Edwards is in a moonboot and on crutches<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Johns said Pangai Junior's absence is a "massive loss" for Penrith, let alone what the rest of the hobbling team are battling through. In a tight grand final clash, John believes the Rabbitohs will edge the Panthers by just four points.<\/a><\/p>\n

"Without a doubt Souths are fresher and healthier which I think gets them over the line," Johns predicted.<\/p>\n

\"Spencer<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Joel Embiid reveals truth in 'disappointing' Ben Simmons saga<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Canterbury Bulldogs set to sign Rabbitohs star<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ashwin fires back after criticism over IPL incident<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"It's going to be nothing in it, I'm just worried how busted Penrith are.<\/p>\n

"Souths rested players in the last round, they had a really tough game against Penrith, then they had the week off, then they had a soft win against Manly. In those four weeks they've had one tough game.<\/p>\n

"Penrith didn't rest players, [and had a] real tough game against Souths, a real tough game against Parramatta, they went to war against Melbourne – that's three really tough games in a row. So I think the fresher Souths, that's the advantage."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eighth Immortal Andrew Johns believes clubs should take great interest in an up-and-coming youngster that has been called upon to help the "busted" Panthers ahead […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137976,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137974\/revisions\/137976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}