Penrith matched the feats of club royalty as they blew Canberra out of the water early to claim their eighth straight win with a 28-12 domination on Saturday night.
In what shaped as another acid test of the Panthers’ premiership credentials, Penrith flexed their muscles in a powerful first half to play the Raiders out of the match.
The win drew Penrith level with the club’s best winning streak set in 2003, while they also finish a fourth straight round first on the ladder.
It makes for their longest stint at the top since 1991.
And the way the current side is playing, they look every bit as dangerous as those two sides that won the club’s only two premierships.
Nathan Cleary is in career-best form, Apisai Koroisau is clearly the buy of the year and their forward pack is humming.
The halfback was again brilliant on Saturday night, after previously helping them topple both Melbourne and the Sydney Roosters this year.
He became the youngest player to pass 700 NRL points since Graham Eadie way back in 1976 with his first goal, while his combination with Viliame Kikau is lethal when he isolates him one-on-one.
He was also superb in defence, once helping hold up Josh Papalii alongside Koroisau and another time putting Jordan Rapana into touch.
After Canberra had the first 22 points of the game, it was Cleary and Kikau who got Penrith on the board when the halfback unleashed the hulking second-rower from close range.
Koroisau had a hand in Penrith’s next, setting up his fourth try in five games as he darted out of dummy-half and put Liam Martin through a big hole.
And while Penrith’s size and smarts are beating teams down in the middle, their speed and athleticism is doing the job out wide.
Stephen Crichton has 10 tries in his past eight games and is now the NRL’s leading try-scorer with 12 despite only getting his starting spot in round three.
They have now scored 10 tries on the right wing from the past five weeks, this time coming from Brent Naden with a classic on the sideline from a Tyrone May cut-out ball.
The Raiders meanwhile weren’t as bad as the scoreline suggested.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad had a nervous start at the back on return from a gruesome finger injury, but scored both of the team’s second half tries.
He didn’t celebrate his first as it appeared he could have been held up, but the bunker was unable to overturn the on-field call of try.
Again, it was a case of one step forward and one step back for Ricky Stuart’s luckless side on the injury front.
Hooker Saliva Havilli, deputising for Josh Hodgson at No.9, suffered a suspected left tricep injury that could also leave him sidelined.
The loss leaves them fifth, two points behind the Roosters in the race for the top four and with a far inferior for-and-against.
