Can you believe the Panthers will compete in their fifth straight Grand Final on Sunday night?
There’s part of me that still can’t. Anyone who has been a fan long enough to go through the tough times, will know what I mean.
To understand just how big this achievement is, you have to step back in time.
No team since the mighty South Sydney Rabbitohs of the late 1960s and early 1970s has competed in five straight Grand Finals.
This is a Penrith team in elite company.
And while it is impossible to compare the modern day Panthers with the St George Dragons side that won 11 consecutive Premierships from 1956 to 1966, there is no question that Ivan Cleary’s side is in the same conversation in terms of greatest ever teams.
It will not be until this era is long gone that people pay the Panthers the respect they deserve for this run of success.
There’s still too many people declaring this Grand Final run ‘boring’, but at least the silly claims of the side being arrogant have now disappeared.
The secret to success at Penrith has been waiting in the shadows all along.
It was always about fostering home grown talent, creating the right pathways and then keeping those pathways consistent when other clubs came circling.
Backing your juniors and getting your pathways right was no big revelation, but actually achieving it is harder than it looks.
Especially when the club had drifted so far off course in the time between the 2003 title and Phil Gould arriving back at Penrith as General Manager almost a decade later.
Gould would steel Penrith for the time ahead, and his part in this era of success should not be under-rated.
One of the key appointments was Matt Cameron, who was brought in to restructure the pathways more than a decade ago now.
He is now the Rugby League CEO at Penrith, an inevitable rise given his quality football brain and his measured approach to business.
Cameron is media shy, to a point, which has worked in Penrith’s advantage. Distraction does not exist in his vocabulary. He knows what he needs to do, what he wants from the organisation, and he gets it.
And then there’s Ivan Cleary.
There’s so many Ivan Cleary stories that will be told once this era is put to bed, but the only one that really matters is that he answered former Chairman Dave O’Neill’s phone call in mid-2018.
It was the sliding doors moment that changed everything.
And so as we prepare to take on the Melbourne Storm this Sunday night, the enormity of what has been achieved already sets in.
But it’s not over yet.
This is a footy side that will not rest on its past. It still believes it has more history to create.
The most foolish thing anyone could do this week would be to write them off.
Those who have done so in the last five years are still wiping egg from their face.
Troy Dodds
Troy Dodds is the Weekender's Managing Editor and Breaking News Reporter. He has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working with some of Australia's leading media organisations. In 2023, he was named Editor of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.