Penrith coach Cameron Ciraldo has indicated he now has a better understanding with NRL officials after meeting with referees boss Bernard Sutton ahead of their elimination final against the Warriors.
The Panthers’ relationship with the referees has been one of the centre points of attention surrounding Penrith this week, after the rookie coach met with Sutton on Thursday.
Headed into the NRL’s finals, the fifth-placed Panthers average the most penalties per game of any team in the league with 9.4, while they’ve also had the most total sin-binnings this year (13).
But Ciraldo said he now had a better understanding of what officials were looking at headed into this weekend’s finals series.
“It was just to get some clarity on a few things,” Ciraldo told reporters on Friday.
“Just make sure we’re learning along the way and we’re making sure we fix up the mistakes we can control because we don’t want to keep making them.
“It was good. We got a good understanding on what they’re looking for and appreciated his honesty and feedback.
“I appreciated Bernie’s honesty and feedback, he was good and by the end of it we both had a good understanding of what we’re looking for so it was positive.”
Ciraldo was also hopeful of a free-flowing game similar to the ones seen in State of Origin this year, where penalty counts were well down on the NRL regular season matches.
“You’d like to think so but we’re ready for whatever happens. If there are a lot of penalties we’ll deal with it,” he said.
“We’ll try and defend it anyway we can. If there’s not we’ll get a free-flowing game which will suit us.”
Ciraldo never played in a finals match in his nine-year NRL playing career, but it’s taken just four matches for him to feature as a coach.
He’s made immediate moves, after the Panthers headed into camp at Homebush on Friday night ahead of Saturday’s clash at ANZ Stadium following their success on the road in Melbourne last week.
“(It’s) so we don’t get stuck in traffic tomorrow,” Ciraldo said of bunking down just 40km from their Penrith base.
“We had a good camp in Melbourne so am trying to emulate that.”
STATS THAT MATTER
* Eighth has only beaten fifth once in the six years of the current NRL finals system.
* The Warriors have not beaten Penrith in Australia since 2012, losing their last five on the road against them.
Stats: Fox Sports Stats.
