Claws out from rivals but reports of Panthers’ death greatly exaggerated despite history proving three-peats rare

Reports of the death of Penrith’s title chances have been greatly exaggerated but they will have to pull off a feat achieved only seven times in 115 years if they can manage a premiership three-peat. 

Dynasties are a rarity in rugby league. Since the salary cap was instituted in the late 1980s, no team has managed a hat-trick of premierships.

With a loss in the World Club Challenge and a first-up defeat to Brisbane to kick off their NRL campaign, the claws are out for the Panthers but they still deserve to be premiership favourites until they show more substantial signs of regression.

It has been well documented that Parramatta’s blue and golden generation of 1981-83 were the last team to complete a trifecta but only five other teams since the competition kicked off have done likewise – Easts (1911-13), Balmain (1915-17), Souths with their best run of five on the trot from 1925-29, the Tricolours again from 1935-37 when Immortal Dave Brown was obliterating scoring records, the Rabbitohs from 1953-55 and the most dominant dynasty of all, St George’s epic 1956-66 run of 11 straight titles. 

Nathan Cleary and the Panthers look dejected after defeat in the World Club Challenge. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Parramatta in 1983 – in the last year of what was known as the NSWRFL before it was rebadged as the NSWRL – were one of the wealthier teams in the competition but despite there being no restrictions on salaries, they had built their dynasty from within, similar to Penrith prioritising their investment in local juniors over the past decade.

CLICK HERE for a seven-day free trial for your favourite sport on KAYO

The Eels side which won the ‘83 crown only had four changes from the previous grand final side with David Liddiard on the wing for Neil Hunt, Peter Wynn replacing John Muggleton in the second row, Chris Phelan dropped to the bench with Paul Mares taking over at prop and Stan Jurd the other front-rower with Geoff Bugden out with a serious chest injury. 

Their glory years squad featured the game’s best halfback who organised the play alongside a five-eighth who could conjure up a try out of nothing, a lock who led the pack with non-stop efforts, an under-rated fullback and the competition’s most devastating winger for breaking tackles. 

Sounds a lot like the current Panthers with Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai, Isaah Yeo, Dylan Edwards and Brian To’o far from carbon copies of Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny, Ray Price, Paul Taylor and Eric Grothe but performing similar roles.

As far as the difficulty of a three-peat for a team in the modern era of stringent salary cap audits (or so we’re led to believe), a more relevant example to compare with this year’s Panthers would be the Roosters of three years ago.

Trent Robinson’s troops were the first team in 25 years to successfully defend their title but fell short in pursuit of a three-peat.

The major difference between the 2019 side which held the trophy aloft and the team which bombed out in the semi-finals the following year was the retirement of Cooper Cronk, replaced by a relative newcomer Kyle Flanagan, who did not work out and was promptly punted soon after the playoff exit. 

Latrell Mitchell had also departed for Souths and the Roosters were able to engineer a decent replacement by getting Josh Morris from the Sharks early in the season but the former international was in the veteran class and did not possess his younger predecessor’s attacking spark. 

Victor Radley suffered an ACL tear midway through the season as well to further weaken the Roosters’ chances of a treble.

After saying farewell to Matt Burton and Kurt Capewell the previous year, the Panthers lost Api Koroisau and Charlie Staines to the Wests Tigers as well as Viliame Kikau to Canterbury in the off-season with Stephen Crichton also becoming a Bulldog next year and Spencer Leniu heading east to the Roosters.

Couple that with a surprise loss to St Helens in the World Club Challenge final last month and another upset defeat – both on home turf – to Brisbane in Round 1 and dire predictions about Penrith’s prospects are starting to bubble to the surface.

Legendary Eel Peter Sterling (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

A little perspective is required. Both losses were by a point and the Panthers are clearly under-prepared after 13 players represented various nations until mid November at the World Cup.

They clearly won’t be as dominant this season after racking up a 20-4 record last season, going 21-3 the year before and 16-4 in the pandemic-addled 2020 campaign which ended in defeat at the hands of Melbourne in the decider.

The fact that they’ve made a hat-trick of grand finals should not be overlooked either – just making a premiership decider three straight years can be physically and mentally taxing on a squad irrespective of the amount of player turnover. 

Melbourne did it from 2016-18 and with a huge asterisk later put against them from ‘06-09 while the Roosters in 2005, the Broncos in 1999 and Manly in ‘98 each had dramatic drop-offs after three straight grand final appearances.

If last week’s form continues they should be 0-2 by full-time on Thursday night after 80 minutes on BlueBet Stadium against South Sydney, who were the most impressive side in the first round with their 27-18 triumph over Cronulla at Shark Park.

Not that this match needed any extra hype in the build-up but Rabbitohs star Latrell Mitchell’s jibe about there being a “few cracks in the windscreen” has had its desired effect. 

Unless the Panthers fire up to unleash a flogging on the Bunnies, the cheeky dig from South Sydney’s fullback has at the very least found its way under the Panthers’ skin and with Jarome Luai the NRL’s unofficial king of trash talk, they can hardly complain about a few sly words. 

Penrith players were forced to respond to the Mitchell sledge earlier in the week at their media op as well as coach Ivan Cleary at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday as he tries to bounce back after the 13-12 upset loss at home to Brisbane.

“I don’t know, you’d have to ask Latrell, I suppose,” Cleary responded when asked if he’d noticed any cracks. 

“I don’t think so. I think we’ve got a really good pre-season, it’s been short and we’ve done plenty of things right. We did last week but also not really to the standard that we want and the Broncs were good enough to win that game.

“I don’t think we need any extra motivation but potentially that could.

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

“I think everyone (who hasn’t won) i’s keen to get their first win and we’re no different. We want to get our season up and running but each season’s full of challenges, whether you’re winning or you’re not, so tomorrow is just another great opportunity for us.”

Cleary said Luai and bench utility Jaeman Salmon had smoked the peace pipe after their on-field blow-up after the loss to Brisbane and added that kind of argy-bargy between teammates was a common occurrence even if it’s not seen in public too often. 

“We had a chat and got them in the headmaster’s office,” Cleary said. “It was actually quite humorous, the situation but I think we can all understand it wasn’t a great look either. It was a bit of frustration on the boys’ behalf. It was nothing more than that.

“You want them to compete hard and that’s all they were doing. There was a little bit of frustration throughout the night for our performance. We were putting ourselves in good positions throughout the evening and just couldn’t quite get things right. And that was just a byproduct of that.”