{"id":74888,"date":"2021-05-23T05:57:32","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T05:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=74888"},"modified":"2021-05-23T13:04:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T13:04:47","slug":"hometown-hat-trick-hero-fuels-panthers-rampage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=74888","title":{"rendered":"Hometown hat-trick hero fuels Panthers rampage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Departing Penrith centre Matt Burton bagged the first hat-trick of his NRL career in his home town of Dubbo as the Panthers thrashed the Rabbitohs in a 56-12 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today's performance showed exactly why the Panthers had been so defiant in not letting Burton leave for the Bulldogs early<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Panthers assistant coach and incumbent Bulldogs mentor Trent Barrett pushed for Penrith to release the 21-year-old this year<\/a>, arguing he'd play most of the season in the NSW Cup if he stayed at the foot of the mountains, but he's instead locked down a centre spot in the top grade and thrived.<\/p>\n

Burton combined today's three tries with 152 metres, five tackle busts and three line-breaks as the Panthers charged to an 11th-straight win to start the season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 15-game young gun's first try came in the 26th minute when he got on the end of a slick chain of passes involving halfback Nathan Cleary and five-eighth Jarome Luai.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He snared a double when he soared above Rabbitohs winger Josh Mansour to collect a Cleary bomb and crash over in the 32nd minute.<\/p>\n

And he completed his hat-trick on the back of a frantic passage of play in the 52nd minute. Cleary sent a kick heavenward, the beating sun cruelled Mansour and forward Scott Sorensen cleaned up the crumbs and linked with Luai, before Luai found Burton.<\/p>\n

\"Burton<\/p>\n

"Three tries at home in the NRL, undefeated, it's what dreams are made of," said 2004 Bulldogs premiership five-eighth Braith Anasta on Fox League's coverage.<\/p>\n

"It just can't get any better."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not only did Penrith's thumping of fourth-placed South Sydney bolster their premiership credentials even further, it added the premiership doubts hanging over the Rabbitohs.<\/p>\n

It was only two rounds ago that Wayne Bennett's men were pummelled 50-0 by the Storm at Stadium Australia.<\/p>\n

The Panthers are now set for a clash with the Bulldogs in Penrith on Saturday afternoon, while the Rabbitohs will steel themselves for a blockbuster against the Eels at Stadium Australia.<\/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 clicking here!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Departing Penrith centre Matt Burton bagged the first hat-trick of his NRL career in his home town of Dubbo as the Panthers thrashed the Rabbitohs […]<\/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\/74888"}],"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=74888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74890,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74888\/revisions\/74890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}