Injuries and player departures led to coach Peter McLean briefly pulling the boots back on after retiring with a grand final win, while the club’s annual report noted “ill-feeling and despondency amongst the players”.
Penrith have no such concerns as a tight-knit group with four premierships to their name, but their mid-year revival has stalled all the same with the comprehensive Knights loss.
Rising prop Liam Henry will accept a two-week ban for a crusher tackle on Fletcher Sharpe, which will rule him out of next Sunday’s local derby against Parramatta and the following week’s clash against Jarome Luai and the Tigers.
Penrith will be sweating the Origin fortunes of NSW quintet Nathan Cleary, Isaiah Yeo, Dylan Edwards and Liam Martin throughout the next month – starting with a four-day turnaround to the Eels clash – given the rocks and diamonds presented by their draw.
The Panthers have a bye before Origin II in Perth, but have already ruled out any of their Blues playing four days later against the Warriors in Auckland given the cross-country turnaround.
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Ladder-leaders Canterbury are up next on a five-day turnaround from that trip across the Tasman, before their third and final bye leading into the Origin decider.
Coach Ivan Cleary could do little but lament a first-half against Newcastle where Penrith’s prize-winning defence leaked four tries to what is statistically, the worst attack in the NRL.
“Win games,” was Cleary’s simple response to shifting from the bottom of the ladder.
“Look it’s not where you want to be, but what’s more important is how far you are away from everyone else.
“Not just on the ladder but in playing potential. I think we’ve already shown this year, and certainly in the squad, that we have the potential to be much better. But you can only rely on potential for so long.”
Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter.
