Surprising news: The Penrith Panthers trade the most talented player to another weak rugby team ever.
Unexpected development: The most gifted player gets traded by the Penrith Panthers to another underperforming rugby side.
Penrith has spent several years snatching the attention of over 8,000 youths on both sides of the Blue Mountains.
The stories behind each signature of the Panthers now match their striking rate, when before they were unable to retain, much less repurchase, their greatest local players.
Originally trained as a landscaper, former Penrith hooker Jim Jones has spent the last thirty years searching the western Sydney savannah for talent as the club’s recruiting officer.
The legendary Panthers scout explains how this grand final 17 came to be, from initially crossing Liam Martin off his list and only just sliding Stephen Crichton onto another to picking up the likes of Brian To’o and James Fisher-Harris for spare coin.
Signed as a mid-north coast 17-year-old five-eighth, he advanced to fullback in the under-20s. During his debut NRL pre-season, he proved himself to be the club’s fittest player by defeating backline gems Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Waqa Blake in back-to-back 400-meter runs. He then defeated the next several runners to step up and challenge him as well.
Teenagers who had trials with the AFL team GWS Giants were encouraged to attend Australian schoolboy basketball trials as well, but they were ignored because the rugby league hit-outs fell on the same day. Has development coach Ben Harden to thank for putting him in Penrith’s SG Ball squad tryouts when only 47 of the 50 positions were taken?
