How much longer can Penrith keep producing superstars for other clubs?

When most employees leave their company, they hold farewell parties in a pub or restaurant or, if they’re unpopular, a phone box.

Penrith, for the past three years, have held their leaving shindigs in roaring stadiums on grand final day with the farewell gift of a premiership ring.

The price of success in the NRL is teams will eventually lose the superstars they’ve identified and nurtured. Few clubs have paid as heavily as the Panthers: 19 of the last 27 players to have left have done so on the largest contracts of their careers.

A clear reminder of this will hit them between the eyes on Friday night in the qualifying final against the Roosters when their forwards rumble for the first time against former teammate Spencer Leniu, who took the big dollars on offer at the Bondi club this season.

Not that long ago a player signing with a rival club - usually a year in advance because of the NRL’s chaotic contracting system - would see them immediately moved on.

Penrith players don’t want to leave early. They want to hang around and win a title and coach Ivan Cleary uses their departures as motivation for his squad at the end of a long season.

Ivan Cleary and Jarome Luai.Credit: NRL Photos

Which is difficult when you consider the ruthless decisions that are being made about Penrith’s roster and salary cap management.

Back-rower Viliame Kikau and centre Stephen Crichton were considered among the best in their respective positions but weren’t tabled an offer.

This year’s list of departing players is headed by five-eighth Jarome Luai, who Penrith offered $1.7 million over two years late last year. The NSW representative responded by posting on social media an anime-styled image of himself with the caption “Know Your Worth”.

His worth was what the market was prepared to pay and that was $6 million over five years from the Wests Tigers, who he joins next season.

Jarome Laui days as a Panther are coming to an end.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

It takes considerable discipline to let players like Kikau, Crichton, Luai, Leniu and a score of others leave.

Penrith have backed their vast junior nursery to unearth future representative players.

It also speaks to a healthy culture when a senior player can shake off the disappointment of an inferior offer, or no offer at all, park his ego and still do whatever it takes to leave with a title.

“If we did it for one, we’d be obligated to do it for all,” Penrith chief executive Matt Cameron, the man responsible for making the pieces of the salary cap puzzle fit, said. “I have a fiscal responsibility to the club and the community to make disciplined salary cap decisions. The game is littered with examples of clubs making undisciplined decisions and someone else has to wear the consequences of that down the track.”

One-time Panthers pair Viliame Kikau and Stephen Crichton.Credit: James Brickwood

Penrith, of course, was one of them a decade or so ago.

“We had a meeting on day one about not being that club,” Cameron said. “Let’s build a model that generates good players and with that will come success. We know that, with the way talent equalisation works, we’ll cause problems for ourselves because we can’t match what other clubs can offer.

“I feel like we’re open and honest with players. The big ones have been done in the off-season. In some examples, we’ve said, ‘Go and see what’s out there’. Some we’ve never even made an offer … I’ve told their managers, ‘If I make an offer, I’ll embarrass your client and I don’t think that’s fair on anyone’.”

Cameron might be the Panthers’ Grinch, but the system works: Penrith is attempting to become only the third team in history to win four consecutive premierships. The Rabbitohs won five from 1925-29 and St George claimed 11 from 1956-66.

He said: “You get shitty for a day after you lose a player and then you say, ‘Wake up to yourself, idiot’. This kid’s life is about to change, and we’re proud to have been a part of it.”

AFL’s PG-rated antics would be welcomed in NRL

Good morning. I was wondering if you could tell me where I buy tickets for the bandwagon every Sydneysider jumps on when there’s a sniff of a grand final appearance for the Swans and/or Giants?

The best part of the qualifying final between the two Sydney teams last Saturday was the bitterness, the anger, the hate.

Swans forward Tom Papley had his cranky pants pulled up to his earlobes, getting in the face of any person in his field of vision wearing orange, including Giants football manager Jason McCartney at quarter-time.

The Giants were slugged $20,000 for McCartney displaying “conduct unbecoming”. I’m told he’s facing further sanction for putting a glass on a table without a coaster at the after-match function.

They do enjoy clutching their pearls in the AFL, don’t they?

Hawthorn star Jack Ginnivan was slammed this past week for having dinner in a public place the night before the finals victory against the Western Bulldogs.

Jack Ginnivan celebrates a goal for Hawthorn.Credit: Getty Images

The 21-year-old was then branded “immature” for writing under an Instagram photo Swans ruckman Brodie Grundy had posted: “See you in 14 days”.

In other words, see you in the preliminary final after the Hawks get through Port Adelaide in the semi-final on Friday night.

After two white-substance scandals in a month, the NRL can only dream of having such controversies with which to grapple.

Speaking of controversies ...

A very NFL scandal occurred earlier this week when Miami Dolphins wide-receiver Tyreek Hill was pulled over for speeding on his way to the match against Jacksonville Jaguars at Hard Rock Stadium.

There’s much debate about whether the arresting police officers were too aggressive with Hill, who is one of the biggest names in the NFL. After arguing with them, he was dragged out of his car, thrown to the ground and handcuffed.

“They said I was speeding, but I don’t know,” Hill said. “What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Worst-case scenario, you know?”

Retired NBA star and now TV pundit of note Charles Barkley had some advice: “The one thing you can’t do as a celebrity, you can’t say, ‘Do you know who I am?’ You say, ‘Yes, sir,’ cooperate 100 per cent.”

Naturally, after being released, Hill scored an incredible 80-yard touchdown, tiptoeing along the sideline to avoid going out, and then celebrated with teammates by pretending he was being handcuffed.

Witch-hunt underway at Manly

Last week, we reported about trouble afoot at Manly over plans to abandon its junior representative pathways, including the idea to outsource its Jersey Flegg (under-21s) and women’s programs to Blacktown Workers.

Two-time premiership winner Anthony Watmough has been leading the charge against the proposal, claiming it would be disastrous to snub the best talent on the northern beaches.

It must be a touchy issue at the Sea Eagles if the witch-hunt internally to unearth “sources” after our story appeared is anything to go by.

Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles players celebrate a try.Credit: NRL Photos

We can now tell you that Manly’s highly regarded pathways and women’s program manager David O’Donnell resigned on the day the story appeared. Pathways manager Hanna Clare has also left.

O’Donnell didn’t want to say much when contacted on Thursday, although he did take umbrage at Manly chief executive Tony Mestrov’s claim that he’d been leading a four-month review into pathways.

“I was never spoken to about it, I didn’t know about it, and nor were any of the pathways staff,” O’Donnell said.

THE QUOTE
“Look, I can only do so much. I can’t play the game for them.” — Socceroos coach Graham Arnold turns the heat on his players after disappointing World Cup qualifiers. If Arnold, 61, did make a comeback, we can only hope he does so with the Super Mario-like hair and moustache from his playing days.

THUMBS UP
Australia’s Madison de Rozario secured silver in the T54 marathon on the final day of the Paralympics then revealed her father had passed away on the day of the opening ceremony, at which she was one of the flag bearers. All class. I loved these Games. As Paralympian Tim Hodge said: “The Olympics are the epitome of human excellence, and the Paralympics are the epitome of human resilience.”

THUMBS DOWN
Speaking of class, sometimes tennis player Nick Kyrigos again showed how much he lacks it after dragging former girlfriend Anna Kalinskaya into his feud with US Open champion Jannik Sinner. He responded to a photo of the pair from four years ago with the words “second serve”. Sinner is now dating her. It’s not difficult to work out what he was suggesting.

It’s a big weekend for … the Giants’ Toby Bedford, who insists he’s recovered from a calf injury and ready for the onerous job of tagging Brisbane Lions star midfielder Lachie Neale in the AFL semi-final at ENGIE Stadium on Saturday night.

It’s an even bigger weekend for … the Canterbury Bulldogs, who need to forget about winger Josh Addo-Carr’s positive roadside drug test and heavy losses in the final two weeks of the regular season when they meet Manly at Accor Stadium on Sunday. Viliame Kikau and Haumole Olakau’atu running at each other has Harragon-Carroll vibes.

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