Motivation.
It’s a word that’s been uttered a lot during Penrith’s incredible premiership run over the past four seasons.
How does this team of champions continue to have the motivation to keep tackling? To keep fighting? To keep winning?
A man that’s been there for much of the memorable ride is hooker Mitch Kenny.
The 26-year-old, who will play in his 10th NRL Finals game on Friday night, said finding the motivation to keep succeeding isn’t as hard as it may seem.
“There’s many different places you can draw motivation from,” Kenny told the Weekender.
“You can be motivated for the guys in the group that haven’t tasted success yet but you’re also motivated for yourself – why would you want it all to end?
“We’re all just trying to get the best out of ourselves and the best out of this group. I think there is more in us, and I think we all know that.
“We don’t want to rest on things we’ve done in the past. We’re just looking to be the best version of ourselves and winning the premiership is a by-product of that.
“We’re not looking too far ahead, we’re just trying to build and become the best team we can be.”
While many believe this year’s Penrith outfit isn’t as strong as in previous years, many would also agree that they are still miles ahead of many of the other sides fighting it out in the Finals this weekend.
Kenny said his side know the problem areas they need to fix ahead Friday’s showdown against the Roosters at BlueBet Stadium.
“We’re just lacking a little bit of polish,” he admitted.
“You only have to look at the penalties or the error count to know that we are getting in our own way a bit. We’re building a lot of pressure but we’re not able to do anything with it.
“It feels like we are dominating – it probably feels like that for the people watching as well – but it’s not resulting in blow-outs because there’s too many fundamental errors.”
Penrith are the third most penalised team in the competition, while this week’s opponents are first. Kenny said if the Panthers can get their discipline in order against the Roosters, it will go a long way to winning and earning that pivotal week off.
“I guess the beauty of it all is that a lot of those are individual accountability things – holding onto the ball, making smarter decisions with the footy,” he said.
“I think if we can do that right and everyone can take a bit more responsibility with the footy and also little things around our defence and the penalties that we are giving away, I think we’ll see all that pressure that we are building translate into a better result.”
Nathan Taylor
Nathan Taylor is the Weekender's Deputy Editor and Senior Sports Writer. He also compiles the weekly Chatter on the Box TV column. Nathan is an award-winning journalist, who has worked at the Weekender for a decade.