Penrith have never been able to recover from the sex tape scandal that rocked the club

The Penrith Panthers never stood a chance in 2019. Not because they miss more tackles and concede more penalties than any other club, that’s a symptom, the cause runs much deeper writes David Riccio.

Penrith’s season was over before it began.

• Penrith watch finals slip away in Townsville
• The ugly fallout over Brown’s shock demise

Penrith’s season was over before it began.

Fans and commentators can point to the Panthers’ more missed tackles than any another side, or how they’ve conceded the most penalties in the league.

And what happened last March isn’t an excuse for their meek performance and finals debilitating 24-10 loss to the Cowboys on Friday night.

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The Panthers were out enthused and outplayed by the Cowboys on Friday night. Picture: AAP Image/Michael Chambers

The Panthers were embarrassingly flat and out-enthused in Townsville by an average side with little to play for.

But the reality is, the reason why Penrith are where they are is because they have never been able to recover from the sex tape scandal that rocked the club before a ball was kicked.

And more to the point, they have never had the ruthless Sam Burgess, Cameron Smith, Paul Gallen, Cooper Cronk come-follow-me-leadership — a problem ever since Peter Wallace retired — to drag them out of it.

Tyrone May was stood down under the NRL’s no-fault rule prior to the start of the 2019 season. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

Penrith captain James Tamou may not be the leader the Panthers need. Picture: AAP Image/Michael Chambers

While James Tamou has developed as a leader in his first year as captain, a deep evaluation of the 2020 roster and replenishing their on-field leadership will be discussed at a club board meeting this Wednesday.

Difficult for fans to comprehend, Penrith’s entire pre-season was rendered as a virtual waste of time after three sex tapes involving players were leaked on the internet 10 days before round one.

Tyrone May was subsequently charged with two counts of recording an intimate image without consent and two counts of disseminating an image without consent. He was stood down under the NRL’s no-fault rule.

@PenrithPanthers paid $4m for Ivan Cleary, $4m for Nathan Cleary, $1m to get rid of Griffin, $1m on Gus’ redundancy payment. Terrible management.

— BUZZ ROTHFIELD (@BuzzRothfield) August 23, 2019

Club officials who have worked at Penrith for decades said training sessions turned into a viewing of “Night of the Living Dead”.

Players turned into zombies as phones rang hot that May wasn’t the only Panther involved.

Speak to any Penrith official today and they still swear they saw paranoid players jumping from their own shadow.

As a result, the team started the season with a 2-8 win-loss record, including six straight losses — their worst losing streak in 17 years.

Penrith’s 2019 season has become a game of catch-up ever since.

Any coach or player will tell you that, eventually, the mental drain of chasing wins and constantly playing under pressure takes its toll.

The Panthers are an exhausted footy club and the sooner the season ends, the better.

Originally published as Penrith have never been able to recover from the sex tape scandal that rocked the club