Penrith Panthers

Last season the Panthers endured on heck of an injury toll, but they managed to squirm their way into the Finals. They did so because for all their injuries, they still had influential play-makers in Matt Moylan, Jamie Soward and James Segeyaro running around guiding a group of hard working forwards. This season however the Panthers' injury curse was twice as deadly which effectively ruined 2015 for the lads from Penrith.

Watching the Panthers' last game of the season against the Knights last weekend, backed up my view that 2015 can't be seen as a failure or a let down for the Panthers. Their fans still showed up and supported their team because they understood that matters that their team couldn't control effectively hindered any hopes the Panthers had of improving on last season. You can look at the fact that they finished outside the top 8 and you might feel like the Panthers' season was an epic let down, but anyone with some knowledge of how much talent wasn't on the park would know that it's just unfortunate for the Panthers.

We were robbed of seeing Matt Moylan develop this season on the back of making the Kangaroos last season. All the talk about Moylan earlier this year was about how he had learned plenty from being in the Kangaroos squad and was heading for a big season as he combined a year of NRL experience with things learned from Australia's best. Things weren't so bad for the Panthers when Moylan was ruled out for the season because they could still call on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to play fullback. Watene-Zelezniak is essentially a fullback who has had to play on the wing and at centre for his team, so this provided with him with a chance to show what has many pundits singing his praises.

When Watene-Zelezniak was also scratched for the back end of the season, the Panthers were effectively looking at life outside the NRL's upper echelon. Will Smith impressed at fullback, but he's no Moylan nor is he Watene-Zelezniak. There are positives here though as Moylan's been able to soak up information watching games and I'm sure he'll return a better player while Watene-Zelezniak showed what a classy young player he is filling in at centre and doing a good job. Smith has shown that he could put pressure on anyone in the backline as he's quick and has a lethal step.

Dean Whare and Jamal Idris offer a dangerous centre pairing, but Idris only played six games and Whare only managed 13. Josh Mansour only played 12 games and David Simmons played 13, but this gave us the chance to see the likes of Waqa Blake, the Jennings brothers and Isaah Yeo all get game time. Should the Panthers outside back group stay healthy, there'll be a wing spot up for grabs with Simmons retiring but there's also great depth here.

Ivan Cleary will be praying for a healthy team in 2016 for obvious reasons, but also because of Lewis Brown's departure to Manly. Without Brown, the Panthers would have been up shit's creek as he put his utility value on display for all to see filling in at centre and in the back-row. Many see utility as a negative but Clearly could rely on Brown all season to do a quality job in whatever position he was asked to fill.

Injury also struck veteran prop Brent Kite, which was a bummer but once again there is plenty of positives from 2015 in regards to the Panthers forwards. This was headed by the rise of Reagan Campbell-Gillard who emerged as a the leader of the Panthers' forward pack which given he's 21 years old is pretty crazy. Bryce Cartwright showcased his potential, so did Tyrone Peachey while I can't remember Sam McKendry being such a handful to stop in the middle. Late in the season we got to see Leilani Latu and Tupou Sopoaga get more game time, which will be crucial moving forward into 2016 as Nigel Plum joins Kite and Simmons in the retirement village.

It's hard to be too down on the Panthers when the footy gods simply weren't shining on them, especially when those injuries have gifted young players more experience than coach Cleary would have planned for. To endure 2015 would have been a mission for Panthers fans as they had to roll out a team that was consistently below par all season, but on to of getting some quality back from injury for next season they have snapped up the Junior Kiwis halves pair of Te Maire Martin and Zach Dokar-Clay to join Junior Kiwis hooker Sione Katoa for next season. This gives the Panthers some depth in the halves where they needed it the most as someone like Apisai Koroisau played far too many games in the halves for the Panthers this season.

Player Of The Season - Lewis Brown

Youngin' Of The Year - Reagan Campbell-Gillard

2015 In A Tweet - Pray for Penrith