And so it is over. Rome has fallen.
A total of 1,457 days after they beat South Sydney Rabbitohs in the 2021 grand final, the Penrith Panthers’ reign as NRL premiers has come to an end. With a 16-14 defeat to the Brisbane Broncos, one of the most spectacular runs in recent Australian sport has finally unravelled.
That’s to the delight, and above all relief, of fans of the other 16 clubs in the competition, many of whom have developed the inevitable resentment of a perennial winner. And, even as a Panthers fan since early childhood (the days of Royce Simmons, Greg Alexander and the 1991 premiership), I actually share the relief that this whole thing has finished and we can get on with our lives.
The four years of grand final wins have each served up a different experience of glory. The 14-12 win over Souths in 2021 was both an exorcism of the grand final defeat to Melbourne the previous year, and the breaking of an 18-year drought. The 28-12 win against western Sydney rivals Parramatta in 2022 was one of the more one-sided grand finals of recent times. The 26-24 win over Brisbane in 2023 will remain in the annals for generations thanks to Nathan Cleary’s inexplicable performance in hauling his team back from 24-8 down. By 2024 and a 14-6 win against Melbourne, things were beginning to get a little routine. That was an almost workmanlike grand final win – Penrith were merely clocking in and out for that one.
Should Penrith have won it this year, a compelling narrative would have attached to that too, having come from outside the top four and running last on the ladder mid-season. But enough is enough. The initial success was dazzling: not only was the club providing us with all these special moments, they also brought through a generation of local players from one of Sydney’s most historically deprived and maligned areas, who ended up defining the club’s character and spirit. This is a momentous thing in itself.
But the constant winning has become almost awkward – like we’re hogging the glory. And for a club previously used to underachieving and being a fair few people’s “second” team, it is an uncomfortable thing to be universally loathed.
It’s also surprisingly stressful to support a club that has won four grand finals in a row. Fans of other clubs have the aspirational experience of striving for a premiership: the excitement of possibility, of climbing the mountain. For some Penrith fans, we’ve been in a state of anxiety about something we hold and treasure being taken away – of losing what’s “ours”. And a fatal sense of ownership can creep in: that winning grand finals is a natural state of affairs. So for the sake of a more colourful and interesting competition, it feels right that another team will hoist the Provan-Summons Trophy in 2025, even if it ends up being another bunch of consistent winners, Melbourne.
Another benefit of this interminable run being over is that now is the time to properly recognise the achievement and celebrate it. This is difficult when we’re “in it”, caught up in that stress over maintaining the record and waiting to see how long it will stretch out. It’s a cliche when sportspeople say they will only take stock of their achievements when they’ve retired, but it makes sense – it’s once you have distance from such things that they appear in perspective. In other words, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
So while the Penrith players won’t be enjoying the heavy all-nighters we’ve witnessed in previous years, and the community won’t take to the streets, there might be more reason now to celebrate than in any other premiership year: we know the exact scale of the achievement. It’s finished, and the process of understanding where it stands in rugby league history can begin. I’ve been looking forward to that reckoning for a long time.
And so where does is it stand in history? While acknowledging my obvious bias, it feels like the mantle of the greatest ever Australian club rugby league team is theirs. If we accept that this run is superior to Parramatta’s three triumphs from 1981 to 1983, then Penrith’s rivals for the crown are the Souths team that won five consecutive grand finals between 1925 and 1929, and St George, who so famously won 11 in a row between 1956 and 1966. Both sides are entrenched as legendary, but neither had to contend with a salary cap that has seen a parade of talent leave the Panthers in each of the last five years.
The competition back in those days had a much less even spread of talent across fewer teams, ensuring a competition with less depth than today. It was also before the tackle count was introduced and so possession during a match could be very one-sided. You could also throw in the fact that this Penrith team had to deal with unprecedented off-field distractions and attention – including, in the first couple of years of its grand finals, Covid-19.
Let’s not forget that it all starts again in March, and Penrith are likely to be a better team next year than this year. For once, no senior players are leaving the club this summer, and young players such as Blaize Talagi, Casey Mclean and Luron Patea will be better for another full season in first grade. There may well be more success to come. But for now, I’m grateful the fever dream is over, and content to let the quartet of premierships settle as the historic feat that it is.
