Penrith Panthers rugby league boss Phil Gould will stay in the top job until the end of the 2017 NRL season.
Widely tipped to move on once the Panthers had settled down after a tumultuous period, Gould will instead stay – saying he can’t walk away from the club he’s helped re-build.
“I’ve asked a number of people to join our club — coaches, players and management — over the last 18 months,” Gould told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“They’ve all shown great confidence in what we were doing and they joined in good faith, so I can’t really walk away from them until we’ve spent a fair bit of time together. The chairman, Don Feltis, and his board have been wonderful.
“They approached me about staying around until the end of 2017. We shall continue to develop everything we’ve put in place over the last couple of years.”
Gould, who won a premiership with Penrith as coach in 1991, re-joined the Panthers as top dog in 2011, orchestrating a complete turnaround of the club that started with sacking coach Matthew Elliott. He allowed two consecutive captains – Petero Civoniceva and Luke Lewis – to walk out the door, as he worked towards building Penrith into a power club.
Gould has been instrumental in bringing players like Jamie Soward, Elijah Taylor, Brent Kite and Jamal Idris to the club.
