The Penrith Panthers look tired.
The two-time reigning premiers were favoured to go again despite the massive double loss of hooker Apisai Koroisau and back-rower Viliame Kikau.
But the start of their 2023 season has been very un-Panthers-like.
The team that won 17 straight in 2020, 12 straight in 2021, and nine straight in 2022 are now 5-4 to start 2023 and looking mortal.
It's music to the ears of the rugby league fans who get bored when one team is too good for too long and, based on the crowd during the Panthers' 18-6 win over the Warriors, more than a few of them were at Lang Park on day two of Magic Round.
Of course, their support for the fighting New Zealand outfit was all for naught as Penrith held on for the victory, but they were playing against 12 men for 20 of the final 30 minutes of the match.
Throw in a Warriors back line that was repeatedly reshuffled by injuries and you'd have to imagine the Panthers of years gone by would have been nudging 50 points in similar circumstances.
Instead, vital handling errors from Isaah Yeo and Sunia Turuva and some squishy middle defence kept the game up for grabs until Spencer Leniu crashed over with five minutes left, as Demetric Sifakula returned to the field from his sin-binning.
It was the second straight week the Panthers have been unable to score a try against 12 men. Last week it sent them crashing to a shock loss to the Wests Tigers.
Nathan Cleary insisted they were better this time around because they didn't get "handcuffed" by their frustrations at being unable to break through, and halves partner Jarome Luai said it is a "new team" this year and they are embracing the challenge of continuing their dominance.
And it is a challenge.
No players have played more football in the past three-plus years than the Panthers' stars.
Between three successive grand final runs, Origins, Tests, the World Club Challenge and All Star games, guys like Cleary, Luai, James Fisher-Harris and Isaah Yeo have all run out over 80 times since the start of 2020, with Yeo leading the pack with 94.
For comparison, of their opposite numbers on Saturday — Shaun Johnson, Dylan Walker, Addin Fonua-Blake and Tohu Harris — Fonua Blake topped the tally with 68 games.
The miles on the Penrith odometer are the price of their success and remarkable strength and conditioning (and luck) to avoid major injury lay-offs.
In the first half against the renewed Warriors, who certainly aren't carrying the burden of back-to-back-to-back post-seasons, the Panthers looked pretty pedestrian.
The attack was sloppy and disjointed, defenders were being bumped off and they could only jag two tries in the first 75 minutes.
Of course, they still won the game, but their quality of play in the corresponding match in 2022 was miles apart from the 2023 edition.
They dismantled the Melbourne Storm in the wet last year and it kicked off a nine-game winning streak. The battling win over the Warriors could prove to be a similar launching pad, such is the class of this side, but it just feels off at the moment.
And yet they're still third on the ladder.
Unfortunately for the champ-champs, they're simply judged by a different measure to the rest of the league.
