What can Penrith improve on after undefeated start?

With a 4-0 start, the Penrith Panthers have been the team to beat in the NRL.

But can they go to another gear?

After their preliminary final loss in 2025 ended their hopes of a five-peat, the Panthers have used that loss to motivate their start to the season.

Currently, they’ve led the competition in scoring (140 points) while only conceding 30 points, making them the only undefeated team entering Round 5.

Having analysed their 48-20 win against the Eels, former Panthers assistant coach Ben Gardiner noted how Ivan Cleary's side was able to handle pressure during the match.

Yet, in his opinion, they can still improve.

“I’m prepared to say they're going brilliantly,” the Samoa coach explained on SEN’s The Front Office with Vossy.

“But the scary thing is, I think they've got improvement in them yet.

“They're just so much better than the opposition teams that they're playing at the moment.

“There was an obvious difference between when they went into pressure and had to make a decision versus when Parramatta went into pressure and had to make a decision.

“Penrith were able to execute, and Parramatta weren't.

“I think the difference between Penrith and a number of teams at the moment is they can execute under pressure.

“They can find the pass, they can find the freakish play that other teams aren't finding.

“At the moment, they're just running over the top of the teams.”

However, Gardiner thinks there are things that opposition clubs can expose.

“(The) interesting thing was that they had 16 points scored against them in the second half,” he said.

“Now I know they had Mitch Kenny in the bin for one of those tries, but I think that there’s a few little cracks found in that period of time which I think teams will look very closely at over the next few weeks.”

The Panthers will look to continue their undefeated start in their Good Friday clash against the Melbourne Storm at CommBank Stadium.