TO’O: NO WORLD CUP HANGOVER HERE

“It’s just a matter of taking it week by week. We’ll definitely turn up for each other week in, week out, it’s just trying to find that balance.

Panthers winger Brian To’o continues to remain his positive and upbeat self, despite Penrith staring down the barrel of three consecutive defeats.

The defending Premiers are in unfamiliar territory, having not dropped three games in a row since the dreaded 2019 season.

Speaking with Extra Time, To’o said it’s been a challenging few weeks with outcomes being decided in the dying stages of games.

“It’s been a tough couple of games lately, coming down to the wire. A couple of them we’ve been lucky and a couple of them we’ve pulled up short,” he said.

“It’s just about finding that groove again. I know our team will come together as a group and as a club and we’ll definitely come back stronger.”

To’o said last week’s four-point loss to the Wests Tigers in Bathurst was “disappointing” and the side were playing “frustrated” throughout the dire affair.

“It was one of those games where we were playing with frustration, things didn’t really come our way and we obviously didn’t nail a couple of things that we wanted to do and the Tigers played their best game,” he said. Asked what might be the issue to Penrith’s clunky form of late, To’o said the club is still searching for answers.

“I’m not too sure, we’re still trying to find the answer,” he said.

“Obviously it’s a new year and not everything is going to be the same; we’re still trying to find that groove and hopefully we get it back soon.”

Pressed further, the NSW Blues star shut down suggestions a World Cup hangover or lack of pre-season were perhaps reasons for Penrith’s slow start.

“Nah not really… I don’t feel like that’s affected us,” To’o said.

“I still feel like we have a lot to improve on. There’s definitely lessons we can take out of those games and certainly mistakes we can fix –we just have to keep moving forward.”

Meanwhile, To’o has shed light on his recent on-field accessory, his headgear.

Earlier this season, To’o began wearing the headgear after going without for the first 70-odd games of his NRL career. An inspiration to younger players, To’o said he wears a headgear now for a very simple reason.

“It’s more of a safety-first thing,” he revealed.

“At first I was taking the piss out of Critta (Stephen Crichton), but then I thought this will actually help me – safety first, kids.”

To’o plans to keep wearing his headgear for the foreseeable future, but he hopes commentators will stop confusing him with Crichton soon.

“Heaps of people are calling me Stephen now, he’s not that short,” To’o laughed.

“I’ll stick with it. It’s important to look after your head. To me, it’s more for safety precaution and a bit of taking the piss out of Critta.”

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary is taking full responsibility for his side’s shaky start to the season, but he assures supporters he’s working on a fix to get them back on track.

After spending much of 2023 in the top four, the Panthers now find themselves in seventh place on the NRL ladder with less wins than surprise packets the Warriors and Dolphins after nine rounds.

Speaking with the media on Tuesday afternoon, Cleary said it’s been a tough start for his troops who are battling injury and some mental and physical fatigue after a World Cup affected pre-season.

“We’ve had a pretty intense start to the season – real wars actually – we’ve had a few injuries too, like everyone else,” he said.

“I also feel like we’ve brought the best out of everyone, but I think we’ve helped that to be quite honest, particularly in the starts of games. We’ve only had that one game against Manly where we started in the first half to the kind of level that we would like, so that’s a lot of games that we haven’t, and then we’ve had to come back and, when you’re doing that, you’ve kept the opposition interested.

“We’ve been out of control, not in control too often and that takes its toll physically and mentally… but that’s no excuse.”

Cleary’s comments come after Penrith’s surprising loss to bottom-feeders Wests last

Saturday, which resulted in the joint venture securing their first win of the season.

The two-time Premiership winning coach said the conditions and lack of preparation were to blame.

“We just didn’t play well enough. Obviously, the conditions were a big part of that, and I’ll take responsibility – I don’t think I prepared the boys well enough,” Cleary said.

“I wouldn’t say it was a reality check or it was a bad performance, but there was too much bad football in there.

“We didn’t connect some good stuff together for long enough. We didn’t play the conditions well, which gave them the opportunity. It was their night, they played the conditions better.”

While some Panthers supporters are pushing the panic button already, Cleary wants fans to be patient. While he understands their frustration at the lack of winning of late, he’s asking the supporter base to give them some time to figure things out.

“Evidence is evidence and you can only go by what you’re doing and within ourselves and as a team we are far from satisfied with what we are offering,” Cleary said.

“It’s up to us to turn that around, but it’s obviously early days. No one is going to worry about the first eight rounds when the season is over. It’s up to us to square that up and fix it.”

Penrith will be hoping that comes as soon as Saturday against the Warriors.