Matt Burton should be ‘disappointed’ with performance in Leichhardt Oval loss, says Ivan Cleary
WRITTEN BY STEVE ORME
@SteveOSportal
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary bluntly declared utility Matt Burton should be ‘disappointed’ with his performance following Friday’s 26-6 loss to the Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval.
Burton, who signed a three-year deal with the Canterbury Bulldogs in November, has been one of the best players in a previously unbeaten Panthers line-up since forcing his way into the starting team in Round 3.
With eight frontline players absent due to State of Origin duties, the 21-year-old was shifted from left centre to the halves alongside Tyrone May for the Round 13 clash
He scored the Panthers’ only try against the Tigers but was unable to have his usual influence on the contest in what was arguably the first sub-par performance of his 17-game career.
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Cleary didn’t hold back when asked of Burton’s performance but backed the talented utility to bounce back in the coming weeks.
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“Matt’s pretty disappointed,” Cleary said.
“He scored a great try but for the guy who kicks the ball the most he would be disappointed and he should be, but I don’t think Matt’s gone through anything but good games so far so he’ll be right.
“We’ve certainly got a lot of faith in Matt, he’s one that’s had to change positions into a completely different position so he’ll be better for the run tonight.”
Cleary added of his side’s maiden loss of the campaign: “The thing I was a little bit worried about coming into the game was going to be cohesion in attack and that’s pretty much how it runed out,” Cleary said.
“I thought we were really brave, I thought we defended well throughout the 80 minutes but our end of sets were not good which means we couldn’t build any pressure which I think played into their hands a fair bit, yeah.”
Asked if he has faith the Panthers can turn things around during what shapes as a treacherous Origin period, he replied: “Oh God yeah, I mean we had two training sessions and when you take eight of your best players out, pretty much your whole steering wheel and the gear box it’s going to be difficult.
“But we thought they’d do better and I would expect them to do better than that.
“It’ll help having that game under our belts for the games coming up where we’re going to be missing some people.”
