NRL Grand Final 2021: Russell Crowe’s Book of Feuds sledge for the people of Penrith

Russell Crowe’s Book of Feuds has added fuel to the grand final fire claiming the Panthers are just a bunch of hillbillies who can’t be trusted.

Russell Crowe has fired up the Panthers. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Russell Crowe’s fabled Book of Feuds is ready to ignite Sunday’s NRL grand final, accusing Penrith players of being “like those strange hillbillies in Deliverance”.

The book also claims South Sydney people don’t trust the Panthers, who were once known as “Chocolate Soldiers” and “perennial losers”.

Commissioned in 2008 by Crowe, co-owner of Souths, and written and updated by author Mark Courtney, the book offers brutal and harsh critiques of all the Rabbitohs’ opponents. The irreverent tome won’t be popular at the foot of the mountains.

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“They (Penrith) might seem like gentle, country folk from the Blue Mountains but, like those strange hillbillies in Deliverance, they lie in wait and cannot be trusted,” it reads.

“We have to be always wary of them, and we must show them, each and every time we face them, that we will never let our guard slip. When we have been riding high, they have been able to ambush us.”

Souths co-owner Russell Crowe commissioned the Book of Feuds in 2008. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Told about Souths’ distrust of his club, Panthers chief executive Brian Fletcher said: “This is the largest growing area in Sydney so the right people trust the Penrith community.”

The argy-bargy will add another layer of tension between the clubs.

The Book of Feuds also took aim at Penrith’s formative years and the much-maligned playing strip used in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“Penrith chose to adopt a brown and white combination, but as they struggled to establish themselves as a credible force in the game over the next 20 years, their colours somewhat seemed to hold them back. They became known as the Chocolate Soldiers and gained an unwanted reputation as being perennial losers.

The Panthers’ brown and white strip earned the nickname the Chocolate Soldiers.

“Although in general we’ve had their measure more often than not, they have upset some highly successful Souths teams, and clashes over the years have often been pivotal to the overall success or failure of our season.

“During the ’80s, we generally got the points against Penrith, but the fact we can never take any match against them lightly was again proven in our two most successful years (1986 and 1989) of that decade.”

Penrith’s participation in the 2000 premiership season, when the Rabbitohs were controversially dumped, was not forgotten in the book.

When the 1999 criteria rankings were released and South were axed, the book reported: “Controversy later raged as arguments about whether monies paid to Souths and Penrith should have been counted as ‘grants’ or ‘sponsorship’, but it didn’t matter when the 2000 competition kicked off.

The Panthers can respond to Crowe’s ‘Book of Feuds’ sledge on the field on Sunday. Picture: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

“The Chocolate Soldiers, with only 33 years of history and just a single premiership, were in. And we were out.”

The rivalry between these two clubs has been building over recent years.

Opposition coaches Wayne Bennett and Ivan Cleary clashed through the media about rule interpretations before the week-one finals match, won 16-10 by the Rabbitohs.

And this week, Souths wrote to the NRL complaining about the excessive time Panthers trainer Hayden Knowles spent on the field during the preliminary final win over Melbourne last weekend.

When contacted for comment by News Corp, Knowles declined, saying: “No story from my end.”

Originally published as NRL Grand Final 2021: Russell Crowe’s Book of Feuds sledge for the people of Penrith