The continual exit of Penrith juniors from the premiership ranks at the Panthers has moved coach Ivan Cleary to declare his club should be compensated by the NRL for their work developing so many players now spread around the league..
Cleary and the Panthers have thrown their hat into the ring to try to lure Gold Coast Titans star David Fifita to the club but face a fight amid a flurry of big-money offers from a raft of other Sydney clubs.
The triple premiers need a replacement for powerful forward James Fisher-Harris, who is headed back to New Zealand in 2025, the latest in a conga line of exits in the wake of the club’s unrivalled recent success.
That includes Stephen Crichton, who Cleary and the Panthers will combat this week for the first time since his shift to the Bulldogs.
Crichton is one of 11 players to have left the Panthers after tasting grand final glory in the past three seasons, a number that will grow to 14 next year when Jarome Luai, Sunia Turuva and Fisher-Harris leave.
Cleary knows that’s the price of success, but the list of departures is so enormous he thinks there should be something in the system to ensure clubs are not overly hampered, or at least rewarded, for producing players other clubs want.
“In my heart I would love all those boys to still be playing here but we’d have about three teams then, so you can’t do it,” Cleary said.
“I think we should get dispensation, probably more in a development sense.
“We develop a lot of players here that end up elsewhere, so I feel like we should get looked after more by the NRL in that space, apart from the salary cap and how it all works, it’s hard to argue with.
“But I do think we should be compensated in some way for the amount of players we’ve developed and the status they’ve become throughout the league.”
Cleary’s own family has not been immune from the player drain, with his son Jett poached by Warriors last month.