Goonji
Juniors
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- 457
Part 2
While quality players like Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai and Stephen Crichton will always stand out from an early age playing for their school or club, the true art of recruitment is unearthing the hidden gems.
He spotted lock Isaah Yeo playing at a Catholic Colleges schoolboys tournament in Parkes. While other officials didn’t see much in him when picking teams for selections trials, Jones insisted “the big No.14” take the field. Yeo’s now the game’s premier lock-forward.
Jones also brought Dylan Edwards down from Dorrigo, a speck of a town on the NSW Northern Tablelands. He saw the speed and strength in winger Brian To’o when every other club – and player manager – wouldn’t look beyond his lack of height
Prop Moses Leota was almost discarded because he was turning up late to training. Then Jones found out the teenager was a full-time brickie’s labourer and found him a less exhausting job.
Of course, the club has made errors along the way. Gould moved on Cleary in 2015 to make way for Anthony Griffin, whom Gould re-signed before sacking him in 2018.
When then-chairman Dave O’Neill enticed Cleary back as coach at the end of that year, it set off an important chain reaction.
For starters, it ensured his superstar son, Nathan, would be staying at Penrith for far less money than what he could command on the open market.
Cleary’s return also torpedoed Gould’s negotiations with Wayne Bennett, who might have landed a premiership at Penrith but then likely exited within three years as he did at St George Illawarra, Newcastle and South Sydney.
Penrith were looking for long-term, sustained success and Ivan Cleary was the man who could live and breathe the “built from within” mantra.
“Bennett couldn’t have done a better job, put it that way,” Fletcher laughs, pointing to Cleary’s four grand finals. Cameron puts it this way: “Ivan’s a collaborator”.
Which brings us to the salary cap, a system that supposedly greases the premiership pole by spreading talent evenly across 18 clubs.
Teams race to the top of the pole with haste, usually by buying the best players on the market. Some will reach the top but eventually shed talent and slide back down the pole. Stay near the top too long and fans will suspect you’re using a helicopter.
Penrith identified at the end of the 2019 season that things had change, both culturally and in terms of a cap imbalance in which players like Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Waqa Blake and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak were considered to be on too much money.
With success comes sacrifice. In 2021, Matt Burton and Kurt Capewell left the club. In 2022, it was hooker Api Koroisau and Viliame Kikau. In 2023, it will be Stephen Crichton and Spencer Leniu.
“It would’ve been very easy to keep ‘Kiks’ and ‘Api’ and others, but then you have a ridiculous amount of money tied up in your top 13 players and a bunch of kids filling up the rest,” Cameron says. “The reality is, with the kids coming through at the bottom end because of the development system we have, you can’t keep them all. We’ll spend $3 million this year on development. Why spend that money if you’re not prepared to bring them through?”
There are several ways to consider the success of that system.
Of the 18 players who have left the club in the last three years, 13 of them have signed bigger contracts at other clubs.
Some players leave, like Daine Laurie to the Wests Tigers, but come back as he has for significantly less money.
Some players aren’t loved by another club, like Capewell at Cronulla, but he signed with Penrith, became an infinitely better player and then received a massive payday from the Broncos. He will line up against his former teammates in the grand final.
Some players get offered huge sums, like winger Sunia Turuva did to join the Dolphins, but would rather stay and win premierships on the wing.
And many players go to the Bulldogs, like Crichton will next year, but talented outside backs like Jesse McLean are next on the production line, ready to step into the void.
But nothing indicates success like those premiership rings, baby, so consider this: 12 of Penrith’s starting 13 players on Sunday made their debuts at the club. The only one who didn’t is back-rower Scott Sorensen.
“Without sounding arrogant, it’s the patience of the board and administration that has made this work,” Cameron says. “I can see how, for some clubs, it’s about getting the next win, but if you look at our first grade team now it’s the result of planning and good development but also senior administrators being patient enough to see what we were trying to do. We have to hold our nerve here. We’re lucky we have a consistent board and senior management that’s supported everything we’ve done.”
Cameron admits it’s getting harder to solve the riddle, though. Clubs aren’t just after big-name players coming off contract but younger players down the line.
Nevertheless, the Panthers are still building their Big Cat Empire.
Nathan and Ivan Cleary are secured to the end 2027 while Yeo, Leota, Edwards, Liam Martin and James Fisher-Harris are all signed long-term. When he finds a new manager, five-eighth Jarome Luai is expected to extend.
After surviving tough days when Penrith looked like it might have to close the doors, Jones isn’t ready to go to bed.
“A three-peat would be nice,” he smiles. “We might even get a free beer.”
While quality players like Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai and Stephen Crichton will always stand out from an early age playing for their school or club, the true art of recruitment is unearthing the hidden gems.
He spotted lock Isaah Yeo playing at a Catholic Colleges schoolboys tournament in Parkes. While other officials didn’t see much in him when picking teams for selections trials, Jones insisted “the big No.14” take the field. Yeo’s now the game’s premier lock-forward.
Jones also brought Dylan Edwards down from Dorrigo, a speck of a town on the NSW Northern Tablelands. He saw the speed and strength in winger Brian To’o when every other club – and player manager – wouldn’t look beyond his lack of height
Prop Moses Leota was almost discarded because he was turning up late to training. Then Jones found out the teenager was a full-time brickie’s labourer and found him a less exhausting job.
Of course, the club has made errors along the way. Gould moved on Cleary in 2015 to make way for Anthony Griffin, whom Gould re-signed before sacking him in 2018.
When then-chairman Dave O’Neill enticed Cleary back as coach at the end of that year, it set off an important chain reaction.
For starters, it ensured his superstar son, Nathan, would be staying at Penrith for far less money than what he could command on the open market.
Cleary’s return also torpedoed Gould’s negotiations with Wayne Bennett, who might have landed a premiership at Penrith but then likely exited within three years as he did at St George Illawarra, Newcastle and South Sydney.
Penrith were looking for long-term, sustained success and Ivan Cleary was the man who could live and breathe the “built from within” mantra.
“Bennett couldn’t have done a better job, put it that way,” Fletcher laughs, pointing to Cleary’s four grand finals. Cameron puts it this way: “Ivan’s a collaborator”.
Which brings us to the salary cap, a system that supposedly greases the premiership pole by spreading talent evenly across 18 clubs.
Teams race to the top of the pole with haste, usually by buying the best players on the market. Some will reach the top but eventually shed talent and slide back down the pole. Stay near the top too long and fans will suspect you’re using a helicopter.
Penrith identified at the end of the 2019 season that things had change, both culturally and in terms of a cap imbalance in which players like Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Waqa Blake and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak were considered to be on too much money.
With success comes sacrifice. In 2021, Matt Burton and Kurt Capewell left the club. In 2022, it was hooker Api Koroisau and Viliame Kikau. In 2023, it will be Stephen Crichton and Spencer Leniu.
“It would’ve been very easy to keep ‘Kiks’ and ‘Api’ and others, but then you have a ridiculous amount of money tied up in your top 13 players and a bunch of kids filling up the rest,” Cameron says. “The reality is, with the kids coming through at the bottom end because of the development system we have, you can’t keep them all. We’ll spend $3 million this year on development. Why spend that money if you’re not prepared to bring them through?”
There are several ways to consider the success of that system.
Of the 18 players who have left the club in the last three years, 13 of them have signed bigger contracts at other clubs.
Some players leave, like Daine Laurie to the Wests Tigers, but come back as he has for significantly less money.
Some players aren’t loved by another club, like Capewell at Cronulla, but he signed with Penrith, became an infinitely better player and then received a massive payday from the Broncos. He will line up against his former teammates in the grand final.
Some players get offered huge sums, like winger Sunia Turuva did to join the Dolphins, but would rather stay and win premierships on the wing.
And many players go to the Bulldogs, like Crichton will next year, but talented outside backs like Jesse McLean are next on the production line, ready to step into the void.
But nothing indicates success like those premiership rings, baby, so consider this: 12 of Penrith’s starting 13 players on Sunday made their debuts at the club. The only one who didn’t is back-rower Scott Sorensen.
“Without sounding arrogant, it’s the patience of the board and administration that has made this work,” Cameron says. “I can see how, for some clubs, it’s about getting the next win, but if you look at our first grade team now it’s the result of planning and good development but also senior administrators being patient enough to see what we were trying to do. We have to hold our nerve here. We’re lucky we have a consistent board and senior management that’s supported everything we’ve done.”
Cameron admits it’s getting harder to solve the riddle, though. Clubs aren’t just after big-name players coming off contract but younger players down the line.
Nevertheless, the Panthers are still building their Big Cat Empire.
Nathan and Ivan Cleary are secured to the end 2027 while Yeo, Leota, Edwards, Liam Martin and James Fisher-Harris are all signed long-term. When he finds a new manager, five-eighth Jarome Luai is expected to extend.
After surviving tough days when Penrith looked like it might have to close the doors, Jones isn’t ready to go to bed.
“A three-peat would be nice,” he smiles. “We might even get a free beer.”
That was the series of Thurston, Gasnier and Mason. There was a tag inside you could pull out to get it signed. Of Course mine is still sealed 
