What part of “I told yers!” isn’t clear?
For, as discussed, your humble correspondent really did take just one look at the Panthers in their first competition match this year before declaring that the rest of the season was only a contest to work out who would be runners-up. In some ways it was unlucky for the Parramatta Eels that it proved to be them. Like the Swans, the risk is that the year 2022 will be remembered for them for the thumping they got, rather than their genuine achievement in seeing off all other contenders.
The question now is what chance of a three-peat by the Penrith Panthers next year, to mark themselves down as no less than the greatest team of the modern era?
Over to you, coach Ivan Cleary.
“I don’t give a shit about next year,” he said in the after-match press conference, “I just want to enjoy tonight.”
Oh. By the looks of things the whole Penrith team is still hugely enjoying it all some four days and nights later. Some of the carry-on is a little on the tedious side of things, which we’ll get to, but meantime the Panthers really do have a lot to celebrate.
The Panthers have plenty to celebrate, and who can blame them for doing so?Credit:Steven Siewert
Rarely has a team looked so totally in control, so dismissively domineering as Penrith in the grand final. Particularly impressive in the first 40 minutes was their lack of hoopla upon scoring tries.
You see, they weren’t there to celebrate. They were there on business. No sooner had a player scored than other Panthers might offer a quick pat on the back, before setting their jaws with steely focus and heading back to receive the kick-off.
Yes, other teams might jump all around when a teammate scores in a grand final, but you don’t understand. We are Penrith. We expect to score. That last play was important, but nowhere near as important as the next play.
It was coldly professional, overwhelming, unstoppable.
Hat-tricks in the NSWRL/ARL/NRL
- Roosters 1911-13, 1935-37
- Tigers 1915-17
- Rabbitohs 1925-29 (5), 1953-55
- Dragons 1956-66 (11)
- Eels 1981-83
Only when the game was truly locked down in the second-half did they start to let themselves go a little with celebrations.
As to whether they can make it a hat-trick, if you’ll indulge me – one more time for the road – I have a favourite story for this very situation. See, after the Dallas Cowboys won their own second successive Super Bowl in 1993, owner Jerry Jones and coach Jimmy Johnson fronted the media and were asked that very question.
It was Jones who replied, saying words to the effect of, “We have already done our study on this, about what pulls a successful team apart, and we realise that the key thing is uneven division of the glory and the benefits of victory.”
But here’s the punchline. Within weeks Johnson had resigned. The issue was, who deserved more of the credit for success – the coach or the owner??
Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson and owner Jerry Jones celebrate the 1993 Super Bowl win – the franchise’s second straight championship. They have won just one since.Credit:AP
In the case of the Panthers that scenario strikes me as unlikely as the only point of contention as to who deserves most credit is whether it is Cleary pater or fils. As neither can resign from those roles, that base at least is covered. (And personally, for his performance on the night, I’d go with fullback Dylan Edwards, who was extraordinary.) Broadly, beyond just Penrith’s sheer talent they seem phenomenally hard-working, devoted to each other and genuinely proud to wear the jersey. What remains to bring them down, then?
The only thing I can think of – beyond the effect losing a couple of important players in Viliame Kikau and Api Koroisau, is hubris. That is in essence the phenomenon whereby self-belief morphs into arrogance, when a hugely successful team loses its way and no longer engages in the humble hard work that got them there in the first place.
Cue my other favourite story of the genre: Before the World Cup rugby final in 1995, All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick said to me that he knew the Wallabies would fail early in that tournament from the moment he saw them on television getting off the bus for the first game.
When I asked him what he meant, he said, “Oh, you know, the sunnies … the attitude.” And I did know. Successful teams have a certain something about the way they carry themselves, a unity, a bond between them, that you recognise when you see it, just as you recognise teams that will struggle.
Any sign of that in Penrith?
Really only in that some of their carry-on has been a tad over the top since the grand final. Leading chants of “We hate Parra!” and so on, calling Parramatta “our sons” regarding the Panthers having long been derided as the “Eels’ little brother” is far from the humble side of things, and if you had to put it in a single drawer it would indeed be filed under “hubris”.
Still, they were much the same last year, and came good quickly.
All up, I am going to call it. Next year, the Panthers really are more at risk from hubris than Cronulla, Souths, the Cowboys and Parramatta. But if ever you saw a team well set up for a three-peat it is them.
Penrith will win again in 2023.
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