Fish stands tall as Panthers make Premiership statement

Author: NRL.com
Timestamp: Mon 30 May 2022, 05:00 PM

Penrith forwards James Fisher-Harris and Isaah Yeo helped deliver a Premiership statement in Round 12 as the Panthers dominated the Cowboys 22-0 in their highly-anticipated top-four showdown.

With the defending premiers set to be without a number of players (including their co-captains in Yeo and Nathan Cleary) over the State of Origin period, the Kiwi international's form will certainly please coach Ivan Cleary as he looks to the stalwart prop to ensure their table-topping feats continue.

Fisher-Harris and Yeo finished second and third in the VB Hard Earned Index leaderboard from the NRL's Indigenous Round, chalking up 91 and 89 points respectively. That number was bettered only by Eels forward Ryan Matterson, who booked his Origin debut with a 94-point effort against the Raiders.

Of the top ten players in the round, no player had more line engagements than Yeo (12) while Fisher-Harris produced 16 runs of eight metres or more as he compiled another 200-plus-metre effort against the Cowboys.

Isaiah Papali'i's positional switch from an edge to the middle didn't impact the forward's numbers — coming in fourth for the week with 86 points — while Patrick Carrigan and Tino Fa'asuamaleaui both performed strongly in Friday's thrilling clash between the Broncos and Titans, each scoring 84 points.

Fa'asuamaleaui topped all players in the competition for runs of eight-plus metres in Round 12 with 18, while Carrigan (4) finished with the second highest number of offloads — bettered only by Raiders prop Josh Papalii (5).

Wests Tigers fullback Daine Laurie showed no affects of his knee injury as he led all players in supports with seven, while Bailey Simonsson joined Broncos duo Herbie Farnworth and Selwyn Cobbo in producing the highest number of tackle breaks, chalking up 10 along with two tries to get the job done against his old side.

Yeo's strong performance against the Cowboys has seen him slightly extend his lead on top of the overall leaderboard, although the Origin period could see that change. Papali'i remains 16 points behind the Panthers skipper, with Payne Haas sitting comfortably in third but over 100 points behind the duo.

Currently in equal fourth spot, Joseph Tapine has a chance to bridge the 50-point gap to the Broncos prop over the coming weeks due to Haas' Origin commitments.