NRL Greatness
Greatness, it’s rare that we take the time to appreciate something in all of its greatness in the moment, we normally wait till time has passed and then reflect that based on what has occurred since, that the performance displayed greatness.
Last weekend the Penrith Panthers (the football team I support) played in their fifth straight grand final and came away with their fourth straight victory, I don’t think we need to wait the test of time to realise that we have just observe greatness happen.
Before I go into the greatness I just want to give a little back story.
I haven’t always been a Panthers fan, growing up as a kid I was that person that liked to support the opposition which at the time the Panthers started getting good was the Canberra Raiders. I don’t really remember too much about the football at that time but I do remember the suburbs of Penrith absolutely going off when they finally won the grand final, this was somewhat lost on me.
If I fast forward to 2003 and then Panthers are again in the title hunt, this time however I am in my early 20’s and in the years after high school I’d started to go with friends to regular games. It was going to the games that turned me from being a supporter of the opposition to a supporter of your own team, see when you’re at a game its not fun to support the opposition, being the only dickhead to stand up and cheer when your team scores OR have everyone cheering around you when the home team scores, so I soon changed sides, bought myself a jersey and became a Panthers fan.
The good thing about 2003 was that we ended up winning the whole thing, I remember having the time of our lives with friends where we all drank to much, went to the leagues club, partied all night and then the next day thinking, winning is excellent. Unfortunately the good times didn’t last and the Panthers slowly lost form over the years and having mixed levels of success.
I’m going to fast forward to 2020, in the midst of the pandemic the Panthers have had another successful year, having a longstanding unbeaten run they make it to the NRL grand final against the Melbourne Storm. Immediately 2003 memories come rushing back, the euphoria of winning, celebrating, the vibe around Penrith, everything.. unfortunately the win never came. To think that it had been 17 years between grand finals who knew when it was going to happen again, after all it has been 12 years between the 1991 victory and the 2003 victory, sure enough this is where I think greatness starts to kick in.
Fair play the Panthers have another successful year, with a similar team to the previous year they go all the way to the grand final beating the South Sydney Rabbits to claim their third NRL premiership, just like the Panthers team of the 90’s maybe you have to lose one to win one.
2022 rolls around and the momentum keeps going, the mighty Panthers play solidly all year, and win their way through to the Grand Final against the Parramatta Eels. Now I’ll pause, to put this into perspective Eels fans celebrated 3 grand final victories in a row in the early 80’s their last premiership was in 1986, did anyone stop and think at the time that in 36 years time they would still be waiting for their next victory? On the other hand in those 36 years only 3 other teams had ever won back to premierships, it’s pretty rare. We all know the story, the Panthers win, they become one of the elite teams to have ever won back to back premiership, for the eels the drought continues.
So 2023 starts and of course the question becomes “can the Panthers win 3 in a row?”, it hasn’t been done for over 30 years, they were already one of a handful of teams to go back to back, the cynics were against them, the odds are low, but against all belief and against the salary cap which was put in place to prevent it happening the Panthers win their third premiership in a row.
Lets touch on the salary cap, the salary cap was put in place so that everyone had the same budget to pay their players so that rich teams didn’t just buy all the good players and win. People talk of premiership windows which is having a talented bunch of players all in their peak on a good budget under the cap. Why a window? Because usually the players that are the best begin to demand more money, effectively meaning they don’t fit under the cap and so some good players leave. Good salary cap management means you balance experienced or highly paid players with players who are probably younger and getting paid less than what their performances deserve.
Which brings me to 2024 and justification of greatness. We know now the Panthers go on and win a fourth straight premiership, not done since the 50’s when there were less teams and no salary cap. We’ve already shown how hard and rare it is to win one premiership, let alone go back to back or even three in a row but four!!! You can’t just get lucky and win four in a row when the system is in place to prevent it from happening. It means that whatever the Panthers are doing, they are doing better than everyone else, effectively with the same opportunity. What do I think it is? A few things:
Culture: I think the team has created an exceptional winning culture, high standards that everyone has bought into and the culture to deliver all the time
Processes: This is quite broad but it comes down to salary cap management, pathway progression, training and coaching, back office, all those things, it means they are doing those things as good or better than everyone else
So the big question now is, is there anyone out there that can put a stop to 5 in a row, the only way I see it happening is to lose some of the culture where people don’t turn up to win, the processes start to erode, cap management, key people etc, or someone else figures out how to do it better, but till the time that someone can create it all so it is sustainable for 4-5 years then I guess we will just have to appreciate that the Panthers have done it better than anyone for a very long time, potentially ever.