When Greg Davies was Mayor in 2003, he held a Civic Reception to help launch the Penrith Panthers’ season.
The team subsequently won the National Rugby League competition, and after holding another Civic Reception tonight, Cr Davies has declared it’s time for a repeat performance from the Panthers on the field this year.
Tonight's Civic Reception doubled as the announcement of Penrith’s new sleeve sponsor, Cudo, and was attended by hundreds of guests including many of the first grade NRL squad and important local dignitaries.
Cr Davies wished the Panthers well for the season and declared the city was behind them for the year ahead.
“As a club and an organisation, Panthers does the city proud and I know you will continue to do us proud in 2012,” he said.
“All of us here have faith in you… we just want you to have faith in yourselves.”
Panthers General Manager, Phil Gould, said it was important the club continued to play a crucial role within the community.
“I’ve been associated with the Penrith area for many, many years… there is something about this community that keeps bringing people back and it has brought me back this year at a very important time in my life and hopefully a very important time in the life of the Penrith Panthers,” he said.
“There is nothing else in Penrith that gets as much media or as much exposure for this are as our football team… we take that as a huge responsibility.”
Gould said how the Panthers portray and project themselves was important for the region itself.
“We’re a little district here in Penrith which plays in a national sport that has global appeal and the Penrith Panthers can take us a long, long way,” he said.
“Our football club and our football team hold such a huge responsibility in a number of the social programs and community programs that are out here.”
