CONGRATULATIONS Matthew Elliott, you've just won Survivor: Penrith. Your prize? Getting to come back for another season of mutinous intrigue that will once again keep viewers enthralled.
Even if he was voted off yesterday, Elliott still would have walked away with a $400,000 consolation prize.
In the end, it was simply too big a pay-out for the cash-strapped Panthers board to give away.
Make no mistake, Penrith gave themselves every opportunity to sack Elliott a year early.
Over the past week, CEO Mick Leary interviewed every first-grader about the coach's performance during the past two seasons. In many cases, the responses weren't flattering.
Departing veterans tapped on the shoulder a year early themselves felt their coach deserved a similar fate.
The old guard struggled to understand Elliott's textbook approach to gameplans and day-to-day communication. In the end, the dialogue stopped.
Just hours before last Saturday night's final game, Elliott bumped into his starting five-eighth Brad Tighe at CUA Stadium.
Tighe was dressed in a suit.
Elliott asked why and then Tighe decided to finally break the news: he was injured and didn't intend to play.
Elliott had to pull a youngster from the Toyota Cup side 20 minutes into the curtain raiser.
If those who criticised Elliott were staying in 2009, their opinions might have counted a little more. Instead, senior players like Luke Rooney, Rhys Wesser, Tony Puletua and Luke Priddis are the scapegoats because Elliott has survived and they've walked.
The Daily Telegraph understands that Leary's final report did not include a recommendation about Elliott's future.
The board wanted to make their own decision, based on the evidence within and what Elliott told them yesterday.
So how did Elliott succeed where Morris Iemma failed and outlast a politically poisonous landscape?
While his verbal overtures impressed the directors, Elliott also had support where it counted.
Players like Nathan Smith and Luke Lewis, players who represent Penrith's future rather than its past, endorsed him.
Smith, in particular, was instrumental in leading a push against the forces trying to drive Elliott out. The pair have been close since their days in Canberra, with Elliott fighting hard for Penrith to retain the blond-haired lock before he re-joined the Raiders earlier this year.
Smith would later renege to remain with Elliott, who will now finish what he started at Penrith - a three-year contract.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24315522-5001023,00.html