“Oh yeah” was Steve Renouf’s understandable response when Brisbane chief executive John Ribot sat him and several more senior Broncos players down one Friday night in Wollongong.
The chance to earn “three times as much in a different competition called Super League” was first put to the star centre midway through 1994, when Brisbane’s bid for a third straight title was stuck in second gear as they were trounced by a no-frills Illawarra side.
Like the Roosters with the pandemic and a stunning injury toll in 2020, and Canberra’s 1991 salary cap breach and millions of dollars of debt that threatened to send the club into liquidation, the Broncos had a bit going on in 1994.
To put it plainly, in 2023, Penrith don’t.
An NRL season can hang on a halfback’s hamstring, and Nathan Cleary’s injury has been the biggest story to date this year out west. Even so, their prized playmaker is back either this week against the Dolphins or the next against Canterbury.
“Bookmakers have never been generous mate, but you still won’t get a better price than that,” Eels champion Mick Cronin says with a laugh when told Penrith are paying $2.80 to emulate Parramatta’s trio of titles from 1981 to 1983.
Champagne flies in the Eels’ victorious dressing room after the 1983 grand final, which included then-prime minister Bob Hawke.Credit: Fairfax Media
“They’re your favourites and deserve to be, absolutely. They’ve lost a few [players], like every team does, but they haven’t missed a beat. They’ve replaced them because their depth is very strong and that’s a marker of a strong club.”
The Roosters of 2020 lost Cooper Cronk (retirement) and Latrell Mitchell (South Sydney) after their second premiership, though added Brett Morris (and later brother Josh), Angus Crichton and briefly, Sonny Bill Williams, to offset other key departures from their roster.
Anticipated bloodletting from Canberra’s cap breach followed the Raiders for months in 1991, right through to the 19-12 grand final loss to Penrith.
Eventually, Glenn Lazarus (Brisbane), David Barnhill (St George), Brent Todd (Gold Coast) and Nigel Gaffey (Roosters) did leave. But only after widespread pay cuts kept rivals from poaching the likes of Mal Meninga, Laurie Daley, Ricky Stuart, Brad Clyde and rising star Brett Mullins.
Stuart joked he wanted to stay in Canberra and “continue eating the best cooking in the world, my mum’s”, but Meninga has previously described that campaign as “the most turbulent year of my career”.
Somewhere in the middle of those rolling post-premiership overhauls sits this Penrith side, farewelling key figures Api Koroisau, Viliame Kikau and Matt Burton a year earlier, while slowly but surely adjusting their playing style given Koroisau’s influence at dummy half.
Like Parramatta 40 years ago, a core of crucial players – that one day may compare to Sterling, Cronin, Kenny, Price, Edge, Grothe and Ella – remains.
Brisbane’s 1993 premiership celebrations – featuring Tina Turner – lingered into the following year.Credit: NRL Photos
“I think we actually had a pretty settled roster in ’94,” Renouf says of a Broncos side that lost only Terry Matterson from the 1993 grand final team.
“It was a bit of complacency for us back then. We got a bit high on all the media and press, and just never got going, lost games we should have won.
“The Super League stuff was in the background by then and given ’93 was such a big, draining run [Brisbane were the first side to win the grand final after finishing in fifth place], that premiership was such a relief compared to ’92, when we thought we were unbeatable. I think we got lost in our own hype by 1994.”
No such signs yet for the Chocolate Soldiers in 2023.
Defence has been the bedrock of Penrith’s premiership run under Ivan Cleary and, at various points in the past three years, has ranked among the best records in rugby league history.
Efforts without the ball have always been the most accurate barometer of where a team’s head is at. In 2023, Penrith remain streets ahead of the pack.
Conceding just 12.75 points a game going in to round 20, the Panthers are well in front of the next best defensive side Brisbane (17.47 points a game). In the NRL era, the gap between the two best defensive sides has never been larger.
“You don’t need those stats to know that, just look at how they play,” Cronin says. “They’re off their line every week and then, in big games, they just go to another level. That’s what wins you grand finals and that’s why they’re so hard to beat.
“At Parra, we could attack and score more points than anyone else, and this Penrith team has ability with the ball, too. But Jack Gibson’s theory – and it’s pretty simple – is that for 40 minutes of a game, you have to defend. You’re going to be tackling for half the game, so make it a strength.”
And while Cleary’s hamstring could still prove as influential as anything premiership rivals Brisbane, Souths and Melbourne throw at Penrith, the Panthers have largely been fighting fit all season.
Taylan May (ACL) will be the only absentee from their first-choice 17 when Cleary returns, and May has been ably replaced by Sunia Turuva.
The Raiders of ’91 (Daley, Clyde, Lazarus and Gary Belcher), Broncos of ’94 (Lazarus again, Willie Carne, Gavin Allan, Chris Johns and the Walters brothers, Kerrod and Kevin), and Roosters in 2020 (Boyd Cordner, Victor Radley, Angus Crichton and Daniel Tupou) all lost key personnel for lengthy stints throughout those seasons.
Penrith, meanwhile, have used only 25 players (equal least with Cronulla) to date, even with their usual Origin contingent needing to be replaced mid-season.
Maybe Cronin is right about that $2.80 price for another Panthers premiership. It could well be the best you find.
With Origin in the rearview mirror and two months left in the regular season, they’re as well placed as any side in 40 years to secure three titles on the trot.
