COMMENT
Mark down round 23, on the 9th of August, Saturday night at Accor Stadium when the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs host the New Zealand Warriors in a potential grand final preview – and you might as well call it the Penrith Panthers Cup.
While the once-mighty mountain men, after four-straight incredible premierships, languish currently down in 13th place with a 5-7 record, other clubs have risen through the ashes and the scorched earth the Panthers left behind them.
This is a different premiership.
On any given day, two competition points are scrapped for like two drunks fighting over a pool stick.
It’s desperate and sometimes a little crazy.
2025 has given us some incredible games and sides are as only as good as their last performance.
So, it should be, and how it’s always been.
Some want the Panthers to fade away.
You can’t blame them.
This Penrith era has been incredible… and a little longer than some wanted.
We should all be grateful we got to see something, on equal or similar, to what the St George Dragons did back in the 1950s and 1960s, when they won eleven-straight.
To do what the Panthers have down in this modern era and win four is as good.
Now we find ourselves in an oddly strange situation.
What does a grand final look like without the Panthers?
Yes, there’s a very good chance the Panthers find their way there again, considering they still boast Nathan Cleary, Dylan Edwards, Brian To’o and Isaah Yeo.
But on probability?
Maybe not.
Five premierships seem a dream too far away.
The fact is that Penrith’s incredible legacy may lay in the hands of two other clubs in 2025.
Legendary coach Wayne Bennett has won his fair share of titles, too.
Where would the Melbourne Storm be without Craig Bellamy?
Bellamy once did his apprenticeship under Bennett at the Broncos.
And from there, it’s a long list of Bellamy’s understudies that bloomed from the Storm.
Bennett.
If the currently flying Bulldogs and Warriors do indeed make the grand final – you can thank the Penrith Panthers.
An unofficial fifth-straight for the Panthers.
For both clubs boast Penrith royalty.
That’s how good the Panthers, as a franchise, have been in this era.
You can’t win a premiership, it seems, without chipping into what Penrith have done.
The Bulldogs have acquired Stephen Crichton, Matt Burton, Viliame Kikau and even head coach Cameron Ciradlo is from the Panthers.
Hell, Bulldogs General Manager Phil Gould won a premiership as coach with Penrith in 1991 and sacked Ivan Cleary for the fun of it back in the day when he ran things for a bit out there.
Warriors coach Andrew Webster worked under Cleary at the Panthers.
Some incredible clubmen won premiership rings at the foot of the mountains.
James Fisher-Harris and Kurt Capewell, if you don’t mind.
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Te Maire Martin played at the Panthers too.
The reality is, Penrith may not have the stock to win an improbable five-straight.
Their legacy might gift the Bulldogs or Warriors a title this season.
That’s how good the Panthers have been.
