As a long-time Panthers fan, it’s hard to type these words. But the truth is the club just can’t handle success.
The Panthers have always been an unfashionable club. The brown jerseys of the formative years helped forge the Chocolate Soldiers moniker and they’ve never really shaken the reputation of being the unfashionable club of Sydney’s distant west.
The game’s largest junior nursery was always as much a source of pride, as well as frustration, when it couldn’t be converted to on-field success.
A 50-plus-year history has yielded two premierships, each followed by a steep drop-off into mediocrity. It was 1985, when in their 19th year, they finally made the finals.
A maiden premiership eventually followed in 1991, but the club didn’t see September action again until the Super League year of 1997.
When the 2003 premiership arrived, a quick exit followed in 2004, before the club waited six long years until 2010 to play another final.
Incidentally, they played two finals matches that year and lost them both, before another streak of early Mad Mondays was broken in 2014.
A disappointing 2015 was followed by just the second three-year streak of finals action in the club’s history.
And while a flicker of September hope was finally extinguished this weekend, it had been obvious for weeks that the club wasn’t stretching that current streak into a fourth year in 2019.
In 53 years, the club has never played finals in more than three consecutive seasons, and achieved the feat only twice – once in 1989-91 then again over the past three years.
The Brisbane Broncos didn’t miss the finals between 1992 and 2009, and closer to home, the Roosters are preparing to feature in September for the 17th time in the past 24 years.
The common denominator in those two successful eras at the Panthers was Phil Gould. Having started his playing career at Penrith in the late 1970s, Gould returned as coach in 1990 and led them to the grand final that year and the premiership the following year. He then returned to the club in an all-powerful general manager role in 2011.
(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
While there are jokes about his alleged five-year plan – and Gus is adamant there never was one – Gould certainly changed the trajectory of the club. The playing roster, dominated by local juniors, has a strong representation of international and Origin players and the lower-grade teams have won a swag of titles over the past five years.
The all of pointed to a well-run football club on the verge of a premiership, or so it seemed.
That trajectory was irreparably altered in August last year when Anthony Griffin was sacked as Panthers coach – the victim of a falling out with Gould over a perception that he couldn’t lead them to a premiership.
It’s a fair assessment, because while they were running fifth at the time, they were certainly off the pace of the top teams.
But what the current fan base wouldn’t give to be running fifth again? Penrith went two from six the rest of 2018, going out in the second week of the finals. That – coupled with a 10-13 record in 2019 – is a pretty damming indictment of the club’s progress over the past 12 months.
Let’s not also forget the departures of local juniors in Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Waqa Blake, the impending exit of James Maloney and plenty of rumours of strife at the club.
Of course, the most notable departure this year was Gould himself just six weeks into the season, with the explanation that his role had become redundant.
All this in a season where they were widely tipped as a competition favourite back in March. It’s hard to pinpoint where it all went wrong for Penrith, but clearly they’ve made some mistakes.
Was poaching Ivan Cleary from the Tigers really worth the effort to and angst? And with all of Gould’s football knowledge – and even his harshest critics acknowledge his exceptional rugby league IQ – surely a role could have been found to keep Gus around the club.
Yet as a Panthers fan, it feels like the club is heading back to a period of mediocrity where the Panthers sit somewhere between middling and irrelevance.
And that begs the question: why?
Why has a club fallen so far off the pace in just 12 months to a point where few experts will choose them in their predicted 2020 top eights?
For the Panthers, the answer reveals an uncomfortable truth. The club just can’t handle success.
Pomoz
Roar Rookie
And you base that opinion on what exactly? A man who has won two premierships, is the most successful NSW SOO coach ever and was the director of football at the Roosters (there success started not long after he went there). You think he just was in the right place at the right time? It's alright making bold statements rubbishing somebody, but you have provided no data to back it up. Does that make you a "loud mouthed opinionated git" as you put it?
Mat Clarke
Roar Rookie
Success at Penrith is 11th position Been very lucky to see 2 premierships but this story’s heading is spot on about our panthers As for why we’ll i think the club lacks intent and ambition to be a consistent premiership threat and great junior players Shackled by conservative coaches eg Cleary , Elliott and many more The club mantra should be tora tora tora The Cameron smith era has wrestled my love for this game right out of me Saynora
armc2906
Roar Rookie
It's a good point. When the club is seemingly on the verge of a premiership, surely if they were going to bring in a coach, it would be someone who can take them to the next level. Instead they brought in a guy who specialises in rebuilds. Strange!
armc2906
Roar Rookie
I agree there's always a sense that Gus brings a lot of baggage with him wherever he goes. It must be tough to work under him because he attracts attention and not all of it healthy.
Bunney
Roar Rookie
Good post Albo. I remember when Gus started, he claimed something like 60% of the cap was taken up by 5 players – Luke Lewis, Michael Jennings, Tim Grant, Sam McKendry, and I think Lachlan Coote. The last three were signed on potential, not sustained performance, and they’ve done it again! How can the current line-up be so over-valued they need to shed half a dozen 1st graders to keep the rest?? The mind boggles
Nick
Roar Guru
The problem is, the board delegated these decisions to Phil Gould. The baord was stupid enough to give him that much unchecked power. Btw, Gordon hasn't won a premiership since moving on. Good post though. Right questions being asked.
JOHN ALLAN
Guest
Look on the bright side. Ivan is a good bus driver "all aboard the Tigers bus". Ironically his former club are still in the hunt.
Doug Graves
Guest
And now, after all is said and done, the Panthers are stuck with a coach who has a career 47% win percentage for at least the next 4 years :laughing: Schadenfreude seems an appropriate word for Penrith these days :happy:
Richard POWELL
Roar Rookie
Yep. Gus's worst mistake
Albo
Roar Rookie
The problem for the Panthers has been the same for some time. As Gus liked to tell us all the Panthers are a "development Club for the NRL". Their extensive nursery is an ongoing process of identifying, developing , and advancing to NRL level, the new generations of footy talent. The problem for the Panthers has always been in identifying who to retain and who to let go. Who can be part of the squad to get your Club a premiership ? Who can you afford to keep and who can you afford to let go ? Do you keep Jennings, Lewis, Graham , Gordon who can lead a squad to a premiership or offload them for some young guys coming though , allowing the Club to shed some debt ? Unfortunately, there have been many mistakes made along the way by the Panthers heirarchy, IMHO. If we just go back to the recent period of the latest Gus Gould reign, there are costly errors galore and no premierships: 1. Jennings, Lewis, Graham , Gordon all let go and all have since won a premiership. They might have been handy with a young squad of Panthers. 2. Moylan & Cartwright were identified as the foundation of the next Panther dynasty and placed on big contracts only to be both dumped within 12 months ? Maybe not all the fault of Gus , but who is judging the appropriateness of spending big on dubious characters ? Where is the Board ? 3. Then Nathan Cleary was identified as the next player to build a team around . He was put on a big contract including a job for his dad as coach to ensure Nathan stayed in Penrith. Hook was sacked and more cash was paid out. Where is the Board ? 4. More experienced players like Peachey, Blake, CHN & DWZ were let go this season to save a quid, and more juniors were brought through . Were these more Board decisions ? 5. Throughout the "pathways" development we have seen the emergence of plenty of young forwards, but outside backs of quality are as scarce as hens teeth ? The current Panthers crop in the NRL team are barely Canterbury Cup grade. And the Canterbury Cup backs are no chance of getting to the NRL . Who is identifying and developing some decent backs for the Panthers ? Whilst Cleary and Maloney have been ordinary in recent weeks, they have been given little to work with in the backline at least. So in recent years, the Panthers have been vastly overrated , solely on the expectation that the nursery will surely produce a champion team in the next couple of years ? But the batch keeps churning when things aren't immediately working out and a new lot of potential is banging on the Flegg & SG Ball doors. The Panthers are in desperate need of a much better recruitment & retention team than has been in charge over recent years. To identify the right talent, develop it and retain it, to actually cash in at some point with a premiership team, rather than continually churning over players to the NRL.
Nat
Roar Guru
Coupled with the misery of watching your young talent in CHN, Smith and DWZ pull apart your team on game day. Then their one key signing in recent years, Jimmy Maloney, decides when his season is finished and plays in a dinner suit for the rest of the year.
a
Roar Rookie
Maybe next year will be better for Panthers
Trevor Whitton
Roar Rookie
NO. Gould's harshest critics (as I'm one of them) do NOT agree he has an exceptional Rugby League IQ. He's a loud-mouthed, opinionated git and people tend to buy into his self-aggrandisement.
Dirk Diggler
Roar Rookie
Sometimes the best deals/moves are the ones you don't make- Griffin had his faults and critics, but the fact of the matter was the timing was terrible, a Rookie coach was never going to take them to the promised land.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I was going to write something similar to this. Maybe the biggest junior nursery is a bit of a curse as well as a blessing. If you’ve always got the next batch coming through, no one is indispensable. There’s definitely a pattern of bringing young players through, getting them used to playing NRL, then letting them go. They seem to be working on a three year cycle instead of a longer one.
Nick
Roar Guru
Spot on. Anyone who thinks Gus is some altruistic figure is laughably deluded.
Nat
Roar Guru
Are we crediting Gus with these 'pathways' for the Panthers? Does Hook get any recognition? If anything, we should acknowledge these 'pathways' have ended with a rotating dooor for the vast majority of talent that has come through. However, if Gus wants the job and that gets him off TV - Vote 1 Gus!!! He won't though, he's been dining out on those past achievements for 25yrs and has no accountability for his conduct. Why risk all that when you can just be critical of everyone and thing involved in the game without having to prove anything.
Billy smith
Guest
Haha if he was that good he would have another coaching job
Matt
Guest
The 5 year plan was about developing juniors, setting up pathways & ensuring the financial viability of the club. All if this was achieved. At no stage did Gus say Panthers would win a premiership within 5 years, although that is how most people with no knowledge of what it was about perceived it.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Gus is for Gus. There is a cloud of opinion around him that suggests he has the interests of the game at heart - and I don't see any of that. His self interest appears phenomenally high and he is entwined with the Channel 9/Easts/Fittler/Joey/ power block. There is talk of him getting a high role with the NRL, I shudder at the thought.