Usually Anthony Griffin doesn’t do honourable losses.

But the Penrith coach couldn’t hide his pride after the injury-hit Panthers’ 13-6 NRL semi-final defeat in Brisbane on Friday night.

There didn’t seem to be much to celebrate after medical staff feared Panthers five-eighth Tyrone May suffered an ACL injury to his knee in the wake of the heartbreaking loss.

However, Griffin believed his young Penrith team had passed their 2017 test of character.

Penrith’s rollercoaster season made another dip ahead of the finals when captain Matt Moylan was granted personal leave and underwent counselling.

There were reports Griffin had fallen out with Moylan, who was dropped to reserve grade in April along with two other players for alcohol breaches.

“It is tough with the result at the moment and I am not one for honourable losses but some of our younger guys have really stood up this year,” Griffin said.

“We have had to kick and bite and scratch for every point – a lesser club wouldn’t be sitting here right at the moment.

“I have mixed emotions.

“They are in their first season a lot of them and they were going toe to toe in a final with Brisbane in Brisbane – I was very proud of them.”

All appeared lost for Penrith when playmaker May went down on the stroke of halftime with Brisbane leading 6-0.

However, Griffin said the likes of outstanding prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard, halfback Nathan Cleary and No.1 Dylan Edwards revelled in the challenge.

Campbell-Gillard was the stand out.

He made 166m, 49 tackles, two line breaks and bulldozed up the middle to score in the 64th minute to give Penrith a sniff.

“It (that situation) suited those guys…and I thought we were going to claw back and get over the top of them and win,” Griffin said.

“I am extremely proud of our club. We’ve had a tough season. We have plenty of reasons not to be here.

“At a number of times this year we have put ourselves in some tough positions and I think we showed enormous amounts of strength at the club from top to bottom to keep coming.”

Griffin said scans were yet to determine May’s knee injury but feared the worst.

“It looks like an ACL. We won’t know until scans so hopefully it’s not but the doctor thinks at this stage it is possibly an ACL.”