Matt Cameron, CEO of Panthers Rugby League, received a phone call an hour before James Fisher-Harris’ surprise departure from the club.
“I heard some news about a prop?” a journalist asked.
“Yes, we’ve signed young Luron Patea,” Cameron said.
The news wasn’t what the reporter had hoped to hear, but it was exactly where attention had turned for an organisation that has perfected the art of staying one step ahead.
Proactive rather than reactive, ensuring that even if they are surprised by news or transfers, no panic buttons are pressed.
“We didn’t expect James to be such an important piece of the puzzle. “Not the back end of it,” Cameron told NRL.com in Bathurst. “But young Luron, he’s 21, has come through the system and is already playing reserve grade.
“He’s just the next one to come through the production line.
“I’m not sure how we’ll solve the James one [long-term]. Lindsay Smith is ready to go, as is Liam Henry, and Moses [Leota] is also present.
“We’ve got great players coming through, whether we have to go to market, that’s next week’s conversation, but we’ve done it before.”
The three-peat Panthers will face a significant challenge in filling a massive JFH-shaped hole in their forward pack, but they have a track record of overcoming odds.
Penrith have built a dynasty on their next-man-up mentality, such as replacing Matt Burton with unproven Izack Tago, Api Koroisau with young Mitch Kenny, and Stephen Crichton with Dally M Rookie of the Year Sunia Turuva.
“In a salary cap world, the reality is we’ve had to lose two players every year since the 2020 grand final but we know the difference is we go in eyes wide open knowing that that’s going to happen,” Cameron went on to say.
“So when players like Jarome, for example, have the opportunity to advance in someone else’s club, we always have people coming up from the bottom who are ready to go.”
“It’s never nice to lose them, but 18 of the last 26 players to leave the club have gone on to sign the most lucrative contracts they’ve ever signed. You get s**** for a day, but then you get over it and are really proud to be a part of their journey.
“If you’re going to have a big development system at the bottom end that captures the Western Corridor, it’s always going to put pressure on the main group from underneath.”
Panthers Group CEO Brian Fletcher chuckles at the prospect of ex-Panthers joining the team following their first of three consecutive grand final victories in 2021.
But with every Tago or Turuva that steps up into the NRL and helps deliver the club another title, the perfect example of how a club has got the system right rings true.
“You hear a lot of outside noise every year that we lose players because we lose superstars,” Fletcher told NRL.com.
We’ve probably lost a team in the last five years that would probably be in the top four,
Panthers Group CEO Brian Fletcher
“We lost Burton, Koroisau, and Kikau all in the same year, and they said that was it for us. We’ve lost Crichton and Leniu, but we’re only two points behind the leader, so that’s how the system works.
“It doesn’t bother us because we’ve got the system right. We’re undefeated in reserve grade, and to win all four competitions in 2022 for the first time in 113 years was simply unbelievable. My success as Group CEO can be attributed to my ability to surround myself with intelligent individuals.
One of those people is Cameron, Fletcher’s “football guru,” who, after joining the club in 2012, implemented a restructured pathways programme based on the “built from within” blueprint.
That programme prioritised extending their junior talent pool and expanding their backyard to the other side of the mountains in the Central West through a commitment to the region both on and off the pitch.
Penrith has played games at Bathurst’s Carrington Park since 2014, including a recent win over Wests Tigers in the Telstra Country Series. The club will also play games at Mudgee’s Glen Willow Stadium starting 2025.
“In 2012 we came out and did a development camp in Bathurst and there was 160 kids from Group 10,” Cameron went on to say. “When I took some pictures back, I noticed that there was not a single Penrith jersey, hat, or shorts. I went to the board and told them we needed to do something about it.
“We developed some programmes, beginning with Bathurst Cubs, a four-week programme that ran throughout the season. We have steadily increased our presence not only here, but also in Dubbo and Forbes.
“So if you’re a young country kid and you’re playing representative football, you go into the Western Rams programme, which is their version of Harold Matts and SG Ball which Liam Henry and Jack Cole have come through.”
Penrith’s commitment to investing in their own talent pool, whether at the foot of the Blue Mountains or on NSW’s western tablelands, has served as the foundation for an effective production line of quality NRL talent.
Coach Ivan Cleary, who gave Dubbo boy Isaah Yeo his NRL debut ten years ago and is now watching Henry (from Blayney) and Cole (Orange) continue their development in the NRL, said ‘you just can’t hear enough’ success stories from the bush.
“We were always a development club, but it shifted to the point where only 20% of our NRL squad came from local juniors or through our pathways. We wanted to turn that around and get it to about 80% and only recruit where we needed to,” Cleary told NRL.com.
“We tried to grow as much as we could in our own backyard, and we saw a real opportunity in the Central West, which we also consider ours.
“That was a major motivator when we made the decision as a club to be a development club and only recruit where necessary.
If you’ve got a mandate to grow your own players, even if players do have to leave, it’s hopefully like a never-ending production line.
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary
“Since we won all four grades in 2022, clubs have started to poach not only our NRL talent, but also our juniors.
“It’s hard to replace people like James Fisher-Harris but these challenges continue to come and all we can control is growing our community, developing our juniors and the Central West continues to be such an important part of that.”
Penrith has not only impressed with their ability to develop some of the best talent in the game, but they have also maintained their dominance as more and more players are called up for representative duty.
Cameron’s explanation is simple: ‘alignment’.
“One of the first things that we did when I sat down with Ivan is said, ok, you’re the head coach and we’re trying to find kids down here to play and coach, but ultimately, we want them to be first graders,” Cameron told me.
“So you tell us what you’re looking for in first grade, how you want them coached, and then we basically break it down into segments and introduce it step by step.
“I explain to people that the head coach is teaching them quadratic equations. The guy who coaches the under-16s is teaching them about timetables.
“So when someone like Liam Henry or Jack Cole comes from the Western Rams programme, it looks very similar to the Penrith Panthers programme.” He comes to Penrith to play U/21s, and the U/21s coach coaches the same way as the reserve grade coach, who coaches in the same way as the first great coach.
For the time being, however, while the club works out how to replace their three-time premiership-winning prop, there is still a trophy to defend and a piece of history to chase in becoming the first team to win four consecutive titles since the 1960s.
“I feel at the moment everyone’s moved to 2025, but we’ve still got 23 games in 2024 to play,” Cameron went on to say.
“For the boys who are leaving the club right now, I am sure there is a lot to play for. And, historically, the boys who have left our club have probably played their best season in their final year.
“I believe 2024 can still be very special. But we’re process-driven, not result-driven, so we’ll just follow the process and see what happens.”
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