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In the same week Laurie Daley declared him a genuine State of Origin prospect, Penrith fullback Matt Moylan put on a masterclass to lead the Panthers to a 40-0 victory against the hapless Titans on Saturday.
While Jamal Idris tormented former teammate James Roberts on the left edge to register a hat-trick, it was hard to ignore the class of Moylan at Carrington Park in Bathurst.
The 23-year-old finished the game with three try assists, three line break assists, two offloads, one line break and 141 metres in a man of the match performance.
The Penrith No.1, who didn't play a game in his maiden tour with the Kangaroos in last year's Four Nations, is continuing to put a strong case forward to fill the Blues fullback position vacated by the departure of Jarryd Hayne to the NFL.
While Dugan started the season as the frontrunner to get the nod at the back for the Blues, Daley could be forced to shuffle his backline to make room for the red-hot Panthers custodian.
Dugan, who played in the centres for NSW last year, is a devastating ball runner but doesn't offer the composure and ball skills Moylan possesses.
The Penrith fullback, considered one of the best support players in the competition, also provides a general play kicking option, a goal kicking option and a third play-making option that was on display in a commanding performance in Bathurst.
It was a horror outing for the Panthers the last time they took a home game to Bathurst last season, losing both the match against Cronulla and their skipper Peter Wallace to a season-ending knee injury on the heavy track.
But on a new surface in perfect conditions for rugby league, Penrith's fortunes changed in front of a crowd of 6240 to register their second win in as many games to start the season.
Outside of a 12 minute lapse of concentration in which they conceded three tries to finish the game against the Bulldogs last week, the Panthers have held the opposition scoreless to start the year.
The Titans were denied what should have been first points of the match after the video referee confirmed the on-field decision that Anthony Don was offside when he scored from an Aidan Sezer kick.
Moments later the Titans were rejected on a second try when William Zillman was deemed to have run behind his own player after receiving a pass from Sezer on the inside of decoy Ryan James.
The Panthers were then denied a try to Dallin Watene-Zelezniak in similar fashion, with Brent Kite ruled to have taken out James on the tryline.
After a scrappy 20 minutes to open the match, first points were finally registered when Matt Moylan put Idris through a gap out wide against his former club for a 4-0 lead.
The boot of Wallace led to more Panthers points with Watene-Zelezniak knocking the ball out of Don's hands, allowing Dean Whare to clean up the scraps to give Penrith an 8-0 lead.
Idris grabbed his second try of the afternoon when he ran off a Soward cut-out pass from close range to crash his way over the line to give the Panthers a 14 point advantage.
Idris' hat-trick came up in almost identical fashion, albeit marred by another contentious video refereeing decision, running off Soward to get the ball on the line.
Moylan then set up the next two tries, putting Whare through a yawning gap from a scrum before throwing the last pass to give George Jennings his second NRL try in as many appearances.
Sika Manu rubbed salt into the wound when he strolled through a gap from a metre out from the line, before Bryce Cartwright racked up 40 points with a try of his own in the corner.
