Jamie Soward’s recruitment at Penrith is not simply about turning around the club’s flagging NRL hopes.
The St George Illawarra five-eighth has also been entrusted with the task of unearthing the club’s next great playmaker.
The Panthers’ general manager of rugby league, Phil Gould, on Thursday defended the signing of Soward, who was not offered a deal to stay with the Dragons and struggled through last season with a back injury.
On the surface, it appears to go against Penrith’s ambition to build from within – a directive Gould gave incoming coach Ivan Cleary in 2011.
“We at Penrith needed a development coach, we need two or three years of strong development of our juniors out here and Ivan Cleary, I knew, possessed those skills,” Gould said at the time.
But Gould argues the 28-year-old is exactly what the Panthers need as part of their rebuilding and development process.
In fact, he expects the former NSW Origin representative to play a key role in helping develop the club’s next generation of halves – a trait far removed from the heady days of Greg Alexander and Brad Fittler.
Penrith introduced a “playmakers academy” in 2012, which assistant coach Trent Barrett is overseeing this season.
Gould says the fruits of the academy are still at least four years away – the same amount of time as Soward’s deal with the Panthers will run.
And Gould has high hopes for the knowledge Soward can impart on the area’s next crop of potential stars.
“He’s now played in a premiership-winning team and (has been) coached by the best coach in history in Wayne Bennett,” Gould told Triple M radio on Thursday.
“That’s all things that can impart positively on the Panthers.
“We’ve got a playmaker academy at the Panthers we’ve been running for a couple of years now.
“I’ve got a great coach there in Trent Barrett who is helping out.
“All our junior rep teams are doing extremely well.
“I’ve got some potentially very good halves coming through the system but they’re four or five years away from NRL.
“To have people like Trent Barrett and Jamie Soward in your club, that’s about development and bringing them through.”
And then there is the injection Soward will provide a club which has missed the finals seven of the past eight years – and is enduring a rough start to season 2013 already.
Five-eighth Lachlan Coote (pectoral injury) is expected to miss the rest of the season while halfback Luke Walsh has failed to fire – leaving coach Cleary with a rotation of halves desperate to cement a spot.
Gould believes at least one of those jerseys will belong to the owner of “the best kicking game in the business”.
“I think if you ask any coach in history what are the most important elements of winning football games, somewhere near the top will be kicking game,” Gould said.
“Well, the Panthers just bought the best kicking game in the business.”
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