The Penrith Panthers aren’t the only local sporting team to play their home matches outside of the city they represent.
For the past three years, ice hockey club the Penrith Phantoms have been playing ‘home’ games all over Sydney and beyond following the closure of the Penrith Ice Palace in Jamisontown.
Phantoms players are so dedicated to their sport, they’ll often drive multiple hours to get on the ice and play the sport they love.
Penrith Phantoms Secretary, Jordan Brown, has been playing ice hockey for four years, right before the Penrith Ice Palace shut its doors back in June 2022.
Speaking with the Weekender, Brown said ice hockey has struggled for numbers in Penrith ever since.
“Since the Ice Palace closed three years ago, numbers have been dwindling,” he admitted.
“Prior to its closure, we had a Division 2 team, a Division 3 team and a Division 4 team, but then once it closed, we went down to just one team, Division 4.
“There’s now 12-14 of us that play regularly, but it’s definitely been a struggle to find players since we don’t have a home rink.”
Despite not having somewhere local to play, the Phantoms have found a way to make it work – holding their weekly training sessions online as well as travelling all over Sydney and even further to compete.
“We consider Liverpool our home rink as it’s our closest rink, but it’s a bit all over the shop,” Brown said.
“We’ve had technical home games at Erina, Liverpool and Macquarie, but the latter is closed for renovations until next year.
“We managed to snag some training sessions last season, but it was at an horrific time of 10.45pm to midnight on a Friday night.
“This season, we don’t train at all. Instead we do one day a week of online training where we do a Zoom call together and talk tactics. It’s helping.”
The Penrith Phantoms are part of Ice Hockey NSW and currently play in Division 4 alongside teams from the Central Coast, Newcastle and Liverpool.
Often players would have to travel at all hours of the day and night to play a one-hour game of ice hockey – proving their dedication is truly unmatched.
“We played on Sunday night at Liverpool at 8.30pm, but last season we had a game in Newcastle at 7pm on a Sunday and at Erina at 9.45pm,” Brown said.
“Ice hockey is picking up in Australia – especially since the NHL held their Global Series in Melbourne – but because there’s so many teams to accommodate across multiple amateur and professional leagues including juniors and women, it’s a struggle to find ice time for everyone.
“There’s been attempts to contact local councils to fund another rink in western Sydney but there’s only so much you can do.”
Costs to build and run an ice rink are incredibly expensive, so for now these bunch of passionate ice hockey players will continue to go above and beyond to keep the sport they love alive and also represent the city of Penrith with plenty of pride and passion – no matter where they play.
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.