Eels gun Shaun Lane believes his side would have conducted themselves different to that of their cross-town rivals — whose premiership celebrations were labelled “tasteless”.
Penrith beat Parramatta 28-12 on Sunday night and since James Fisher-Harris said “Parra are our sons”, Jarome Luai posted a now-deleted Instagram story with a caption that has racial connotations and Apisai Koroisau mocked the Tigers.
NRL 360 co-host Paul Kent said the Panthers “were really bad winners” on Tuesday and Lane believes his side would have shown more respect to their opposition if they were able to break a 36-year premiership drought.
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“However someone else conducts themselves doesn’t affect me,” Lane said after being appointed as the Ken Thornett medallist, in quotes reported by the SMH.
“I don’t really care what they say about me or my team. We know how we value ourselves and our own teammates. We know what is important to us and it’s not other people’s opinions.
“If that’s important to them, so be it. We’re not going to be bitter about other people’s comments. They can say whatever they want. If it works for them, it works for them.
“They have a bit of confident arrogance about themselves and that seems to work for them. It gives them confidence on the field also.
“And they’ve developed a great performance around that kind of culture. It really works for Penrith. They’ve had an outstanding team for the past three years, but I don’t think you’d see that at Parramatta.”
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Lane was awarded the Ken Thornett medallist as Parramatta’s Player of the Year after an impressive season.
Meanwhile, teammate Ryan Matterson said the Panthers’ celebrations were “funny”.
“At the end of the day, winners can do whatever they want,” Matterson said.
“They have been the best side over the last couple of years and if they want to celebrate like that, they can.
“I saw it this morning. We haven’t spoken about it. It was pretty humorous looking at it. It did make me laugh.
“If you take ourselves out of the situation and watch it as a whole, it was funny.”
