NRL finals 2022: Rivals seeking help from Penrith on how to build a dynasty through junior pathways
Penrith became the first team in 115 years of Australian rugby league to win titles in four grades, from SG Ball upwards. And now other clubs are calling — and it’s not just to poach players.
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Penrith is proof that rugby league dynasties are not bought, but bred, and NRL rivals have been leaning on the powerhouse club in a bid to emulate its successful pathways blueprint.
Penrith District Rugby League CEO Matt Cameron revealed a number of clubs have been in touch with the Panthers in search of advice on how to grow their own junior talent pipelines.
“A couple have (asked for help),” Cameron said.
“Here is a bit of information sharing that goes on in the NRL so we’re happy to share. At the Panthers we feel a bit of a responsibility to grow the game.
“I’m more than happy to show people how we do it, we’re more than happy to share anything we do here.
“It’s not rocket science. It’s just good people and good processes and a bit of hard work and a league’s club that is prepared to spend money on football and these are the sorts of results you get.”
On top of the countless hours poured into development by staff, the club makes an annual investment of around $2.5 million per year on its junior pathways.
The result is a modern day rugby league dynasty, sealed on Sunday night with back-to-back tiles after three consecutive grand final appearances.
As well as this year’s NRL title, the Panthers were also crowned champions at NSW Cup, Jersey Flegg and SG Ball, becoming the first club in the game’s 115-year history to achieve such a feat.
“What you have seen on Sunday night, and today, is a culmination of a lot of work over a long period of time that a lot of people have put in,” Cameron said.
“It doesn’t happen overnight.
“And the other part of it is we’ve had a really clear strategy on how we wanted to address it and we’ve stuck to the course. Which I think is admirable in a footy club, because you can tend to get off track sometimes.
“We had a really clear plan and what we wanted to do and how we wanted to go about it.”
But there are pitfalls to the success at Penrith. Namely, the limitations of the salary cap.
Cameron is resigned to the fact that the Panthers are poised to lose some of its best players to other clubs.
After losing boom playmaker Matt Burton to Canterbury after last year’s title win, Penrith will farewell NSW Blues hooker Api Koroisau and backrower Viliame Kikau to the Wests Tigers and Bulldogs, respectively.
“When those local juniors come in, you‘ve got a high level of output for not necessarily a high level of salary comparatively” Cameron said.
“But the reality is that success bites you on the bum as you go on and obviously we’ve seen that this year with Api and Billy (Kikau) moving on. And no doubt we’ll see it next year and no doubt we’ll see it the year and year after that.”
Rivals are even poaching the club’s brightest up and coming talents, like Isaiya Katoa, who is widely considered the best player in the SG Ball competition.
Faced with the prospect of being a third-string playmaker behind Jarome Luai and Nathan Cleary, Katoa agreed to join new franchise the Dolphins.
“You look through some of the teams … you’ve Burton playing at the Dogs. You look at the teams there would be a lot of Penrith juniors players somewhere else,” Cameron said.
“And that’s fine. Our big thing is we just want to make sure we pick the ones that we want to keep, which is going to be a challenge moving forward in a salary cap environment.
“But I‘d rather have a trophy and problems than no trophy and no problems.”
INSIDE THE PANTHERS’ SECRET TOP GUN GRAND FINAL MISSION
- By Michael Carayannis and Brent Read
Penrith players have revealed the Top Gun inspiration which helped drive them to premiership success.
And that will sting for Parramatta fans, who had been clinging to the Top Gun omen in the hope it would end their 36-year premiership drought.
The original movie was the highest-grossing film of 1986, the last time the Eels lifted the trophy. When Top Gun: Maverick went to the top of the charts, Parramatta fans were hoping history would repeat for them, too.
Instead, it was the Panthers who used it to help secure back-to-back grand final wins with a 28-12 win at Accor Stadium on Sunday night.
Each Panthers player was issued a call sign as part of their mission. The Daily Telegraph has obtained the list of names, which included Nathan Cleary as Ice Man, Dylan Edwards as Casper, departing veteran hooker Api Koroisau as Sensei and Stephen Crichton as Mail Man, because he always delivers.
The theme was born out of a mid-season camp when the Panthers squad was in Kiama and watched the sequel to Tom Cruise’s hit movie.
The players have kept it a secret, until now.
“This year was all about the mission,” back-rower Liam Martin – AKA Rash — said. “We came up with things how it could relate it to footy.”
So deep was the theme ingrained into the players that officials had Danger Zone played with eight minutes left in the grand final across the PA system at Accor Stadium.
It was the brainchild of assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo and followed a similar path to the scaling Mt Everest theme they used last year.
“Ciro (Cirlado) would come to training and all of a sudden he would pull out pilot hats and aviators,” Martin said. “He had all these things in his bag and you never knew what he was going to pull out. It make it enjoyable to be at training.”
There were serious themes the Panthers took out of it too. Aside from their personalised call signs there were standards set for the rest of the season.
They wanted to “always be the hunters” and called for their players to be always connected, brutally suffocating, hardworking and fast moving. They wanted them to have “one last dog fight”.
Cleary said the themes were a large part of their premiership push.
“There were a lot of themes, particularly like dog fights and coming together,” Cleary said. “There are all different personalities coming together for the one goal. In Top Gun, it is the impossible mission to complete. That was similar — people were writing us off going back to back.”
The use of the call signs amped up during the finals. Players had their slogans made into poster form and placed in their lockers on Sunday night.
“I am the grass-cutter,” said hooker Mitch Kenny. “It was something to do with cutting down the opposition defensively and the old joke about my old job where I mowed lawns.
“We themed it pretty well in the finals and used the messages out of the movies. It was good fun too.
“We spoke about being in the dog fight, communicating and teamwork. It was about trusting our instincts in hectic situations and to make sure we stayed level-headed and composed.”
PANTHERS’ TOP GUN CALL SIGNS
1 Dylan Edwards - Casper
2 Brian To’o - Business
3 Izack Tago - Helio
4 Stephen Crichton - Mail Man
5 Charlie Staines - Chuck
6 Jarome Luai - Breaker
7 Nathan Cleary - Ice Man
8 Moses Leota - Tank
9 Api Koroisau - Sensei
10 James Fisher-Harris - Mamba
11 Viliame Kikau - The Judge
12 Liam Martin - Rash
13 Isaah Yeo - Octopus
14 Mitch Kenney - Grasscutter
15 Scott Sorensen - Zeus
16 Spencer Leniu - Fireball
17 Jaeman Salmon - Deck Chair
18 Sean O’Sullivan - Hangman
CALL SIGN EXPLAINERS
Isaah Yeo (Octopus): “I have long arms.”
Spencer Leniu (Fireball): “Everyone knows that I play with a lot of emotion and passion. So I thought that it fitted me well. I love Scott Sorensen’s – Zeus. Have you seen his body? I don’t know how you stay humble with that body.”
Nathan Cleary (Ice Man): “In Top Gun, it is the impossible mission to complete. That was similar — people were writing us off going back to back.”
Sean O’Sullivan (Hangman): “Hangman is one of the pilots who doesn’t make the final cut but is ready to do his job. He ends up saving them.”
Izack Tago (Helio): “I was doing a fair bit of wrestling at the time.”
Dylan Edwards (Casper): “We used it as something to strive for each week.”
Mitch Kenny (Grass Cutter): “It was something to do with cutting down the opposition. Defensively and the old joke about my old job where I mowed lawns.”
SATTLER SALUTES PANTHER’S PERFECT TACKLE
By Peter Badel and Brent Read
Dylan Edwards channelled the title-winning tackling heroics of Scott Sattler as the Panthers fullback produced the game of his life to clinch the Clive Churchill Medal and propel Penrith to back-to-back premierships.
So often their unsung hero, Edwards sensationally strode into the limelight of Penrith’s 28-12 rout of the Eels, sealing a man-of-the-match performance with a tackle that evoked images of another former Panther.
Legendary Penrith lock Sattler famously mowed down runaway Roosters winger Todd Byrne in the 2003 decider, producing a sublime cover tackle in the 54th minute to inspire the Panthers’ 18-6 victory at Homebush.
On the very same turf almost two decades later, Edwards emphatically tapped into the ghosts of Sattler to bury the Eels. With Parramatta on their knees at 22-0 and desperately needing a try to stay alive, Bailey Simonsson raced upfield in the 54th minute and set sail for the line, only for Edwards to come flying across, Sattler-style, and claim the Eels centre around the ankles.
As Simonsson crashed into touch, Edwards had driven another nail into Parramatta’s coffin. What a play. What a player.
“All year he has been our best player,” Penrith skipper Isaah Yeo said. “On the biggest stage, he makes the biggest tackle.
“Dylan works so hard at training and deserves everything he gets.”
Asked about his premiership-sealing play, Edwards told Channel Nine: “I just had to make the tackle. He was going down the sideline and I just went for it.
“It was something we were striving for to go back to back. I’m just so happy.”
High in the stands, Sattler was watching in his role as a commentator on radio station SEN.
“Someone asked me during the week if there was one player who was going to come up with a big moment,” Sattler said.
“I actually said, ‘I think it will be Dylan Edwards because he’s the hardest worker’. He’s one who always turns up when you need him, and he didn’t disappoint tonight.
“The tackle itself was perfect execution. Like all the great fullbacks in the past, Billy [Slater] was the same where he’d corner them to a point where he knew he just had to accelerate, and the next part was a formality.
“He executed it perfectly, and on a real speedster, too. I’m excited it was another Penrith player who came up with a really big moment like that. It’s outstanding, and one for the hard-workers. He’s flown under the radar for so long, now he’s getting the plaudits he deserves.
“Dylan was the last line of defence, and if he doesn’t get there, Bailey Simonsson scores.”
So often Clive Churchill Medal decisions have been a debacle. This one was a no-brainer.
Fittingly, Edwards plunged the final dagger just two minutes later, the omnipresent Penrith fullback involved yet again, delivering the final pass for Charlie Staines’ try which gave the Panthers a barnstorming 28-0 lead.
Edwards became the sixth fullback in history to claim the Clive Churchill Medal, joining Robbie O’Davis (1997), Darren Lockyer (2000), Darius Boyd (2010), Ryan Papenhuyzen (2020) and Billy Slater, who won the award twice in 2009 and 2017.
Just two other Panthers have won the best-on-ground grand-final gong - Luke Priddis (2003) and halfback teammate Nathan Cleary last season.
As fullback grand-final performances go, this was a five-star effort from the energetic Edwards, Penrith’s Mr Everywhere.
The 26-year-old had a hand in two tries, including the opener for Stephen Crichton in the 12th minute, as he sliced-and-diced the Eels with four tackle busts, two offloads, three line-break assists and a staggering 228 metres from 21 runs.
Australia will announce their World Cup squad on Monday and the Panthers custodian will almost certainly be included in Mal Meninga’s 24-man outfit.
Edwards’ statistics this season have been remarkable. He led the league in four categories: running metres (5287m), total runs (518), kick-return metres (2174m) and most support touches (186).
Once again, on the NRL’s biggest stage, Edwards - who played in last year’s decider with a broken foot - underlined why he is so crucial to Penrith’s premiership spine.
NRL halfback Immortal Andrew Johns, who won the Clive Churchill Medal in Newcastle’s grand-final defeat of Parramatta in 2001, lauded Edwards’ brilliance.
“He would be great in Australia’s World Cup squad,” Johns said on Channel Nine.
“In two consecutive sets, he stopped two red-hot chances for the Eels.
“He just runs and runs and runs. He must be related to Forrest Gump.”
Sattler agreed, insisting Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga had to pick him.
“Mal has been waxing lyrical about him and I just think you take him as reward for the last three years he has had,” Sattler said.
“Take him for the experience. Like when he took Braith Anasta away in 2000 when he was a young 20-year-old. You take them because they deserve it.”
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