{"id":138711,"date":"2021-10-04T05:34:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T05:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=138711"},"modified":"2021-10-04T05:59:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T05:59:11","slug":"sterlo-saw-walker-unravelling-before-intercept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=138711","title":{"rendered":"Sterlo saw Walker unravelling before intercept"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone will talk about Cody Walker's intercept pass to Penrith winger Stephen Crichton<\/a> as the play that decided Sunday's NRL grand final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But legendary halfback Peter Sterling noticed the South Sydney<\/a> five-eighth begin to unravel minutes earlier, on a play that no one focused on.<\/p>\n

The scoreboard was locked at 8-8 after a Rabbitohs penalty goal in the second half, when the Bunnies frantically attacked the Panthers' defence desperately hunting for their first lead of the night.<\/p>\n

It was early in the set when Walker attempted to put a grubber behind the defenders and chase it himself, unbeknown to his teammates.<\/p>\n

The play failed and four minutes later Penrith scored when an errant Walker pass found opposition winger Crichton, who snatched it out of the air and sprinted to the tryline.<\/p>\n

\"Sterlo's<\/p>\n

Sterling said South Sydney struggled to hold their nerve when the premiership was on the line in the dying minutes.<\/p>\n

"I thought with time starting to run out and a little bit of scoreboard pressure\u2026 it's really difficult to be critical of someone who is so creative and has had such a great season, and is looking to win the game," he told Wide World of Sports' Sterlo's Wrap<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"But I thought there was some tell tale signs of some impatience starting to come into the game for Cody with this play\u2026 this is around 30 metres out, it's not the last tackle. It just wasn't the right play.<\/p>\n

"It was never on. And then four minutes later that's the (intercept) pass.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Panthers star Brian To'o proposes to partner after winning NRL Grand Final<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> NRL Grand Final player ratings<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Wayne Bennett speaks on coaching future following grand final loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Huge<\/p>\n

"So the mentality of Cody at that time, he was looking for the big play, and that can be very dangerous.<\/p>\n

"When a ball-player plays so well into the line, any long pass is fraught with danger, and Stephen Crichton was able to snare that one and race away."<\/p>\n

Penrith won the grand final 14-12 to claim the club's first NRL title in 18 years.<\/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":"

Everyone will talk about Cody Walker's intercept pass to Penrith winger Stephen Crichton as the play that decided Sunday's NRL grand final. But legendary halfback […]<\/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\/138711"}],"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=138711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138713,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138711\/revisions\/138713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}