Storm throw spanner in Panthers’ Vegas preparations

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The Melbourne Storm have forced their NRL grand final conquerors Penrith to give up their last trial before heading to Las Vegas for the season's opening match.

The Panthers were relying on NSW Cup side North Sydney to participate in a training match on Saturday, which would've given the injured trio of Nathan Cleary, Dylan Edwards and Liam Martin some valuable game time before the team heads to the US next Thursday.

But Panthers coach Ivan Cleary confirmed the trial match against his former club was cancelled after several Norths players were called up by Melbourne, with whom the Bears formed an official alliance last year.

Morgan Harper, Ben Talty, Tui Katoa and Nathaniel Roache are among a group of Bears who'll be heading to New Zealand with the Storm for a trial this weekend.

“We were after a pretty good squad, and Norths were the obvious choice,” Cleary said to this masthead. “[However] we didn't really get what we expected to get.”

Cleary said that if the scrimmage against the second-string Bears had gone ahead, it would've been like the grand final winner playing against a team from the Ron Massey Cup.

The Bears said they were still keen for the trial to go ahead, but were told by the Panthers on Monday it wouldn't be happening.

The change in plan means most of Penrith's team, including Cleary, Edwards, Martin and Brian To'o, will take to the field against Cronulla at Allegiant Stadium on March 2 without having played a proper trial match.

The premiers had made contact with the Bears after the NRL had failed to schedule them in the Pre-season Challenge this weekend. Instead, Penrith will take on Manly in a trial match next Friday – by which time the bulk of their team will be in a different part of the world.

It's not unusual for senior players to give pre-season games a miss, but several Panthers had surgery over the off-season, and Cleary would've liked the chance to check out his new number six. Blaize Talagi, Jack Cole, and Daine Laurie are among those in the running to take on Jarome Laurie's vacant number six jersey.

Cleary senior said he was happy with his son and Edwards going up against Cronulla in their first game without a pre-season hit-out, but he would have liked Martin to get some game time under his belt beforehand.

The Sharks are planning to give most of their NRL players a run in a trial against fellow NRL club Canberra on Thursday.

The result was him being taken away on the back of an ambulance.

**Gamble: Knights' number five-eighth chases club's pursuit of Dylan Brown**

Robert Dillon

Even if it has a negative impact on his chances of being chosen.

The Knights are supposedly considering a major move for Brown, who has a get-out clause in his contract with the Eels that he can potentially trigger by round 10 to become a free agent at the end of the season.

The Kiwi international has spent most of his career at five-eighth – the position he's most comfortable with. Gamble said he'd heard the chatter about Brown but wasn't losing any sleep over it.

Fair dinkum, he encouraged the Newcastle officials to pounce on the 24-year-old. “He's a top bloke, Dylan Brown,” Gamble said.

“He's played for the Kiwis at a young age, and he's a ripper of a professional. If the club do go after him, I think that's a very good decision.”

Queried about how that might affect his own career path, Gamble replied: “There's no point in me worrying about that.”

“To be fair, it's not on the cards for this year and we're still not even playing practice matches yet. I've just got to focus on how I'm preparing and hopefully get myself into the team by round one.”

Gamble's teammate Dane Gagai reckons Brown would be a decent pick-up but reckons Newcastle's got a good bunch of playmakers already, including Jackson Hastings, Jack Cogger, Will Pryce and possibly Fletcher Sharpe.

“Dylan Brown's a good player, no doubt,” Gagai said. “But I reckon the halves we've already got at the club have been doing a top job.”

We're in a good spot when you've got four or five blokes pushing for two or three positions. That's making them all lift, no doubt. Ultimately, it's up to the club to decide who they want to bring in, but I'm as confident as can be in our halves.

The Newcastle Knights' captain Kalyn Ponga, who might be the one to gain the most if Brown joined the team, said: “Obviously he's a quality player, so heaps of clubs are probably interested in him. We'll see what happens, I suppose.”

Gamble, who's played 38 top-level games since joining the Knights from Brisbane in '23, was happy to play in multiple positions.

I've done it before in the NRL, and it wouldn't be the first time I've had to switch positions," he said. "I told the coach when I came to Newcastle I'm happy to play wherever he needs me. I'll play in the centres and take a kick-off return if he wants me to. That's the attitude I've always had.