NRL grand final 2022: Smug Penrith Panthers have ruined their legacy, writes Paul Kent

This Panthers team will go down among the best ever in the sport. But their smug, immature attitudes mean they will never get the plaudits they properly deserve.

Grand final victory. Picture: NRL Photos/Gregg Porteous

The captain looked to be one of those farm boy types with short clipped hair and a square jaw, but his speech betrayed him.

He spoke clearly and deliberately in short sentences, each with purpose. He would have been no more than 28 or 29 years old but there was intelligence and maturity in everything he said.

He was in a tent in southern Iraq briefing a patrol on what they might find later that night, where insurgents were reported and of the various hot spots and how the night was mostly about building relationships with the local Iraqi people and that being helpful was the key to the relationship.

And every time NRL players act like boofheads, and we get told they’re only young men so give them a little latitude, my mind goes back to that night in Iraq not quite 20 years ago and how impressive the captain was.

And also that he was just as young as many of these footballers, and certainly the soldiers he commanded over, and that there was a maturity required among them because if men wanted to go rogue there was a greater possibility somebody might die.

The Panthers are embracing the hate. Picture: NRL Photos/Gregg Porteous

But they never used their youth or even their education as an excuse.

A standard had to be met, otherwise there were consequences.

And here we are and Sunday’s grand final goes as predicted.

Penrith, who I have been saying for much of the season have been playing at a level above every other team in the NRL, go out and put on a clinic to dominate Parramatta and then, equally as predictable, seem to act like mugs afterwards.

The carry-on from some of the players since winning is immature and lacks humility.

There was nothing gracious about some of the behaviour after the grand final, like there was very little gracious after winning it last year.

They mocked their opposition, one amongst them used a racially offensive term, and even managed to insult their own club legends.

You can’t educate mugs, and Penrith bosses don’t even appear to be trying.

Instead, the usual excuses were offered up.

Young men celebrating a grand final. Tough life, misunderstood, all the kinds of excuses a place like, say, the army, would never accept.

As usual it began on social media.

Jarome Luai posted a pic describing Jaeman Salmon as “My n….”, a racist term in most of the civilised world but a term of endearment according to reports out of Penrith.

Nobody could be so stupid as to believe that is how it would be received, especially since the phrase originated out of America which recently went through the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

A censored version of the Instagram post

Luai (R) with teammate Brian To’o. Picture: John Feder

Joe Rogan was forced to apologise in February for saying the word on his podcast after various other musicians threatened to withdraw their music from the streaming platform.

Penrith made no official response but the Luai post was deleted seven hours later.

The Integrity Unit is investigating.

Luai was asked before the grand final about Penrith’s reputation as Parramatta’s “little brother”.

“You can call us Daddy,” he said.

Before the game it was a harmless jibe.

After the game he published on Instagram an image of himself sitting back in a chair in the dressing room, cigar in mouth, two fingers raised in victory, with the caption “Daddy loves you”.

No respect for the opposition.

On Monday at the Panthers fan day James Fisher-Harris continued the pile on.

“I just want to say Parra are our sons,” Fisher-Harris said, and the players and crowd whooped and hollered until the crowd, caught up in the mob mentality, broke out in a “We hate Parra” chant.

“Right here, right now, that’s a fact,” Fisher-Harris said.

They even managed to insult their own club.

“As I said last night, we are the greatest Penrith team ever,” Fisher-Harris continued.

“No disrespect,” he later added.

None taken.

The days of honouring your past by your performances in the present seem to be missing from Penrith. They live in the here and now, the world all about them.

Panthers fans cheer during fan day at BlueBet Stadium. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Even in victory, when the dust is settled and weapons are down, they continue to injure.

They sang Sweet Caroline in the sheds after the game.

It seemed odd that the Panthers, who delight in playing gangsta-rap and drill music, a particularly violent kind of rap music, would select a time-honoured sing-along to celebrate with after the game.

And maybe it was just a coincidence, too, that Sweet Caroline is the signature song for Eels halfback Mitch Moses when he scores a try at Parramatta home games at CommBank Stadium.

When is enough too much?

Sadly for the Panthers, one of the best teams ever assembled, they won’t be fondly recalled.

Their football is at a level few teams have reached. They will go down alongside some of the best that have ever played but the developing bias against them because of their smug attitudes will mean they will never get the plaudits they properly deserve.

It is a sad admission.

If only the adults at Penrith could teach some of the players how to behave like men as well as they teach them how to play the game.

What a place that would be.

Originally published as NRL grand final 2022: Smug Penrith Panthers have ruined their legacy, writes Paul Kent