Penrith Panthers History

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Penrith's origins with Rugby League go as far back to 1927 when it was a junior club. With a large and expansive area, Penrith started moving its way up through the ranks. It was one of the top second division clubs in the 1960's and in 1966 it defeated Wentworthville to win the second division crown. That win was crucial for Penrith as NSWRL officials were looking to expand the Sydney premiership and Penrith's success was the perfect tonic for the Panthers to be included in the premiership being based out in the far west of the Sydney and an area that was set to boom with families set to move further out west as Sydney started to grow.

Penrith entered the Sydney premiership in 1967 and outside of winning the pre-season competition in 1968, success didn't follow Penrith until 1985. It was hard toil for Penrith in the early days. English imports Mike Stephenson, David Topliss and Bill Ashurst tried to inspire the Panthers but the club lived to its infamous nickname of the "chocolate soldiers" and start to melt in the second half.

The surge in Penrith started in 1984 when two significant things happened at Penrith. First was the appointment of former Panthers player Tim Sheens as coach and the second one was the emergence of a brilliant schoolboy in Greg Alexander. Those two factors helped turn Penrith into a tougher side in 1984 with Sheens winning coach of the year and Alexander rookie of the year. The next year Penrith made the semi-finals when they defeated Manly 10-7 in the play-off for 5th place. Emotion swept through Penrith with the success but were mentally gone when they played big brother Parramatta in the semi-final a few days later and were thumped 38-6. Alexander would win the Dally M player of the year in 1985, stamping his class on the game at an early stage. The following year, Penrith who had an on-field let down from 1985 tasted success in the representative arena when popular hooker Royce Simmins was the Panthers first International player. Simmons played in nine Tests for Australia in 1986 and was joined on the Kangaroo tour by Alexander who was a late replacement for Eric Grothe. To have two Penrith players on tour was a great achievement for the club.

After a disappointing year in 1987, Penrith made two very significant signings in hardened Canterbury premiership winning duo Chris Mortimer and Peter Kelly. Both players installed mongrel and ability to win at Penrith that carried them through in 1988, where they lost a play-off for 5th place and in 1989, Penrith finished in 2nd spot on the minor premiership but crashed out of the finals. Ron Willey was sacked as coach after two years at Penrith and replaced by former player Phil Gould for the 1990 season. Penrith made the grand final in 1990 with Alexander carrying the Panthers to some great wins in the final series. Penrith lost 18-14 to Canberra in the grand final but the mountain men were to launch their best assault on the premiership title the following year. Alexander took over the captaincy as Simmons was in his final year and facing an uphill battle just to be in the side. Penrith breezed through the minor premiership and qualified to play Canberra in the grand final again. Inspired by Simmons, Penrith came from 12-6 to win 19-12 with Simmons scoring two-tries and the most unluckiest player never to win a Clive Churchill Medal with Canberra's Bradley Clyde winning the medal. When accepting the Winfield Cup, Alexander in his speech said "We've waited a long time for this, for the people of Penrith". The area lapped up the premiership success.

Tragedy hit Penrith in 1992 with Ben Alexander, younger brother of Greg and Panthers player killed in a car accident. The death rocked the Penrith club and only today is it starting to recover from the trauma. Mark Geyer and Greg Alexander barely played another game in 1992 with Geyer quitting to join Balmain and Alexander doing the unthinkable at the end of 1994 and signing with newcomers Auckland. Penrith struggled to get over the dramas of 1992. The Super League split occured and Penrith were to lose Brad Fittler and Matt Sing to Sydney City, both a big blow for the now struggling club. Penrith started signs of recovery in 1997 when Alexander returned to Penrith after two-years at Auckland. Alexander returned free from the traumas of before and was playing his best football until a major toe injury put paid to his 1997 season. With Perth folding at the end of 1997, Geyer would return back to Penrith, in what would be a great boost to the off-field confidence that Penrith was starting to comeback together again as a club.

Penrith had a solid season in 1999, playing well on the field but hit by a farcically designed draw designed to go against them, bad refereeing decisions and a mounting injury toll, but to Penrith's credit, they kept playing on. Alexander, the greatest player to play for Penrth retired at the end of 1999 with a great last home game against Canberra where the Panthers won 33-14. After a worrying wait, the Panthers survived the 2000 cut and had their best season in 2000 except for 1990-91 period. Penrith has the highest home crowd average of any Sydney club averaging 14,367 (5th overall). On the field the Panthers qualified in 5th position but injuries and a lack of experience hurt them at finals time.

The Panthers won the dreaded wooden spoon in 2001, which saw a massive clean out in the club with club legend Royce Simmons sacked as coach and several senior players leaving including retiring captain Steve Carter. John Lang came in as coach with Craig Gower appointed captain. Penrith didn?t have the best of 2002 seasons but it was the springboard for a massive 2003 season. The Panthers lost three of their first four matches but would go on to win the Minor Premiership. The Panthers won their semi-finals against Brisbane and NZ Warriors to qualify against the odds for their 3rd Grand Final against the Brad Fittler led Roosters outfit. Two Penrith juniors captains of the Grand Final sides and it was the good guys from the golden west that emerged victors winning 18-6. Luke Priddis played the game of his life, Luke Rooney scored two tries and Scott Sattler produced a cover tackle that made John Raper and Steve Mortimer at their best look ordinary.

Penrith came within 40 minutes of making it back-to-back Grand Finals in 2004 with the Bulldogs ending their season but unfortunately 2005 has been a disaster for the mountain men. Penrith should have a bright future in front of them with great spectator support, a massive Leagues club and a huge Junior League. But there?s huge question marks over their management at senior level and despite having a Junior League the envy of all other clubs is very poorly operated seeing many fine young products fed up with the system only to pack up base to find greener pastures.

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