NRL 2024: Inside Penrith Panthers’ elite pathways development program with a 90% success rate
This is the never-before spoken about elite program that had a 100 per cent success rate in its first year. FATIMA KDOUH takes an exclusive look inside Penrith’s ‘Pearls’ program.
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If the world is rugby league’s oyster, then Penrith is where they find the ‘Pearls’.
Which is what the three-time premiers are claiming of their rich pathways system – that is also home to a never-before spoken about elite program that had a 100 per cent success rate in its first year.
The ‘Pearls’ are hand-picked as the junior nursery’s cream of the crop.
“I reckon we’ve got a 90% success rate overall,” says pathways manager, Lee Hopkins.
“We started it just before Covid. Our first cohort of Pearls was Lindsay Smith, J’maine Hopgood, Brendan Hands, Sunia Turuva and Izack Tago.
“That is a 100 per cent for those guys.
“We nominate them and say, ‘Right, well, we think you’re a Pearl’.”
It’s designed for players that have had no exposure to the NRL to give coach Ivan Cleary a chance to get his hands on the youngsters showing top grade potential.
The Pearls program is ‘ruthless’ and Hopkins makes no apologies about the uncompromising approach.
“Ben Gardner and Peter Wallace, our NRL assistants, they’ll actually run the drills with those players, teach them the basics and understand where those players are at now,” Hopkins said.
“We’re extremely hard on who can and cannot be in that program.
“If we feel you’re not quite up to the standard we want … we had a kid last year that wasn’t going to school, so we kept him out of it.
“You have to be extremely ruthless on it.”
The most recent graduates include Billy Scott, Harrison Hassett, Trent Talau, Luron Patea, Jesse McLean and Jack Cole, the latter two of which have made their NRL debut.
Cole is viewed as Jarome Luai’s long-term replacement at five-eighth.
But the club takes the same uncompromising approach across its entire pathways.
The system that has delivered three-straight NRL premierships, on the back of local juniors, wasn’t a fluke.
It was by design.
One that started on Hopkins’ first day on the job and would soon take in CEO Matt Cameron’s vision for the club’s pathways.
GYM MADNESS
On his first day as the new strength and conditioning coach back in 2010, Hopkins almost quit the role before the shift was over.
But it was a seminal moment in his time at the foot of the mountains.
“I nearly walked out and said, ‘I can’t help you’,” Hopkins recalled.
“I walked into the gym, there was a young kid doing a bench press. His phone went off, and he racked the bench, picked up his phone and answered.”
It was a small but crucial indication that standards weren’t where they needed to be.
But the former Panthers and Eels forward stuck it out and not long after, Cameron had arrived at the club as the head of high performance.
It would be the genesis of the ‘Built from Within’ blueprint, a syllabus for coaching and performance that mandated how every player in the representative system would be coached and trained.
BUILT FROM WITHIN
At the core of the blueprint is what Cameron describes as ‘alignment’.
The idea that every player in the junior representative system is being coached the same skills as that at NRL level.
“That’s where we feel the success is,” Cameron said.
“We asked Ivan what he wants an NRL player to look like, how they pass the ball, catch the ball, how they lift in the gym.
“When we designed the strategy, we were very clear. Every coach has to stick to the syllabus.
“You could bring your personality to the job but when it came to how a player should say, catch a ball, pass a ball, tackle … the coaching points were defined.
“It was a top down approach and everyone had to be on board.”
The Panthers are widely regarded as the fittest side in the NRL.
That too, is no accident.
It’s the result of a strength and conditioning program that subjects players, even at the Harold Matthew level, to NRL standards.
“If you have to run a bronco (running test) and the requirement is under five minutes at NRL level then the requirement at Harold Matthews level is the same,” Hopkins said.
“We know maybe 50% of our Matthews players won’t make it in under five minutes. That doesn’t matter.
“The club’s standard is the club standard.
“None of that was being done before the alignment.”
FUTURE PROOFING
While the ‘Built From Within’ ideology can’t guarantee that the NRL trophy will continue to stay at the club, they are confident of sustaining perennial title contention.
The club’s production line has never been more important as cashed-up rivals pillage the champion outfit.
In just two years, the Panthers have already lost Matt Burton, Api Koroisau, Viliame Kikau, Kurt Capewell, Spencer Leniu, Stephen Crichton and most recently Jarome Luai.
“If we build from within, we’ll be in good stead,” Cameron said.
“My responsibility is to future-proof the organisation.
“Part of what Hoppo (Hopkins) is doing in pathways is making sure that when Stephen Crichton leaves, Jack Cole, or whoever it might be, is physically ready to take his position.
“We’re trying to future proof not only to the playing group, but also the football staff.”
NEXT CROP OF CUBS
The Panthers take great pride in an NRL roster that boasts one of the highest junior level representation across the top 30.
It’s meant that in recent seasons, head coach Ivan Cleary has only needed to go to market to secure depth signings rather than splash cash on marquee players.
In 2023, 82 per cent of the roster was made up of local juniors.
Right now it’s at 75 per cent, a figure that Hopkins labels ‘too low’ by Panthers standards.
Hopkins concedes it’s getting harder to keep junior talent at the foot of the mountains.
But the club is constantly moving to secure long term up and comers that are showing potential, including the likes of Cooper Ferrari, Jenson Tuaoi, Aston Warwick and Sam Lane, who will feature in this year’s Jersey Flegg campaign which kicks off on Saturday March 9.
Lane, a centre, was also a graduate of the Pearl program.
Backrowers Ferrari and Warwick both hail from Dubbo, while Lane, who was the Jersey Flegg player of the year in 2023, is a Lithgow product.
While the club is focused on its own nursery, its Rams junior development academy has given it a presence in Dubbo, Forbes and Bathurst.
“We’ve got enough, we’ve got lots of players in our junior area that we can recruit in,” Hopkins said
“I suppose the best way to look at it is if we’re going to bring a kid in from the outside they have to be better than what we’ve got.”
Tuaoi is a rising hooker, and a local Doonside product, that is likely to join the Jersey Flegg side after the SG Ball season in 2024.
COSTLY EXERCISE
Penrith’s commitment to its pathways comes at a hefty price.
The club currently spends close to $3 million a year to ensure it will remain competitive.
But the club isn’t only getting a return on investment on the field, it’s helping to secure the financial position of the organisation.
The strength of the club’s pathways helped secure its richest front of jersey sponsorship deal to date.
“The owner of MyPlace asked what guarantees can you give that you’ll be as successful as you have been over the last couple of years,” Cameron said.
“I said ‘I can’t give you that guarantee but write these names down Isaiah Iongi, Jack Cole, Jesse McLean, Harrison Hassett….”
“He asked, ‘Who’s that? I said Steven Crichton. Brian To’o, Izack Tago, Sunia Turuva.
“That’s Penrith. We’ve got a model that works and we won’t compromise on it.”
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Originally published as NRL 2024: Inside Penrith Panthers’ elite pathways development program with a 90% success rate
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