2022 Penrith Panthers Kiwi-NRL Breakdown
Penrith Panthers are in their third consecutive NRL Grand Final and are chasing back to back titles, a weekend after winning NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg championships. This thread of excellence throughout the Panthers organisation stems from hard mahi designing development systems with plenty of local juniors boosting Panthers footy.
Panthers are the best example of 'catchment area' and funneling local juniors into the NRL team. Local lads provide immense Panthers mana, amplifying the connection to the community as well as offering salary cap value. Players on their first NRL contract are cheaper than everyone else and promoting players from within ensures a steady flow of talent that out-performs their value. Panthers then invest in these players as they develop and when they can't afford to re-sign a player, they have a cheaper option coming through their system.
From the Kiwi-NRL perspective, catchment areas and such old school NRL ideals tend to be mythical nostalgia. Most NRL teams are recruiting talent from Aotearoa and many NRL teams have more Kiwi-NRL talent than local juniors. What is a 'catchment area' when NRL teams are recruiting from Aotearoa?
Panthers provide the best balance of this and highlight the value of such a pipeline of local talent. Panthers have also made major Kiwi-NRL recruitment moves at all levels and James Fisher-Harris is among the best, if not the best piece of Kiwi-NRL scouting/recruitment. Fisher-Harris wasn't cracking every NZRL representative team and putting himself in highly visible spots, he was tucked away up north where Phil Gould wisely decided to set up Kiwi-NRL recruitment tentacles.
Scouting Kiwi-NRL juniors from rep teams is easy mahi. Getting among Aotearoa's grassroots is a different beast and Panthers quickly ushered Fisher-Harris into their system, embedding him in Panthers mana. Moses Leota has quietly established himself as an elite middle forward and his development has been a pleasure to observe, leading to an Aotearoa Kiwis debut earlier this year.
There isn't much information about Leota's grassroots turangawaewae in Aotearoa, apart from him being from Auckland. Leota moved to Sydney on his own and thus Aotearoa can find inspiration in Leota's journey as he embraced adversity to rise through the best development system in the NRL. Now Leota and Fisher-Harris are the starting prop duo for their second GF in a row.
The sneaky story for Panthers is how Preston Riki, William Fakatoumafi and Daeon Amituanai all left NZ Warriors/Redcliffe to join Panthers last summer. All three were in the Warriors system prior to the pandemic and as Warriors saw their SG Ball/NSW Cup teams snatched by the pandemic, these players had to look elsewhere for opportunities.
Riki played two seasons in Warriors NSW Cup and started their first game of 2020 before the pandemic. Riki was then part of the Warriors/Redcliffe connection in 2021 where he spent the season in Queensland Cup, before joining Panthers and Hokianga homie Fisher-Harris. Riki has started 23 games for Panthers NSW Cup, won that competition last weekend and is named for Panthers ahead of their State Championship game this weekend.
Amituanai is a Whiti Te Ra junior from Otaki and he started 2020 in the Warriors SG Ball team. The pandemic provided a glorious fixture later in 2020 as NZRL unleashed an Under 18 Schools vs Clubs fixture from which most players were recruited by NRL clubs. Amituanai impressed in that fixture and then moved to Redcliffe with a bunch of Warriors juniors where he spent 2021 in their Hasting Deering Colts team.
Ponder how Panthers develop wingers and the value those wingers provide as a percentage of their salary cap. Amituanai might not be next up for Panthers wingers, but he was called upon to play 11 games for Panthers NSW Cup while juggling Jersey Flegg and there is a clear development path ahead of Amituanai. While Christian Crichton and Sunia Turuva are starting wingers for Panthers in the State Championship, Amituanai may have the most upside as a winger (Turuva's awesome everywhere) and Panthers will promote from within.
Fakatoumafi is an Otahuhu junior who has already played for Tonga in the World Cup Nines. An elite junior in Aotearoa, Fakatoumafi featured in Warriors Jersey Flegg prior to the pandemic and then popped up with Redcliffe U21s last year. Fakatoumafi shifted to Panthers where he has played 24 games in Jersey Flegg (Flegg age-bracket went up) and he started a few games at fullback when required, otherwise settling at centre.
Panthers also have Randwick junior Ilai Tuia in their Flegg team. Tuia left Wellington to attend Ipswich State High School and was then recruited by Panthers, with Tuia starting last year in SG Ball before being promoted to Flegg. With Fakatoumafi and Amituanai starting in the Panthers backline, Tuia came off the bench in the Panthers forward rotation during their Flegg final victory over Knights.
There is also a Wellington connection with Isaiya Katoa, although there is a lack of concrete information with Katoa in Wellington. Isaiya's older brother Sione went to St Bernard's College and played for a few footy clubs in Wellington before moving to Sydney, where he seems to have been joined by Isaiya. Katoa then settled into 1st 15 rugby in Sydney but also attended the International Rugby Academy of New Zealand late in 2019 - based in Wellington.
Katoa appears to have entered the Panthers system while based in the area and he was playing SG Ball earlier this year before being recruited by Redcliffe Dolphins (not Warriors/Redcliffe). Panthers whipped up a fuss about Redcliffe poaching their juniors even though Panthers are like every other NRL team in recruiting juniors from elsewhere; any niggle from this move simmered down as Katoa started at halfback in the Flegg final.
Another notable Kiwi-NRL junior from the Panthers SG Ball team earlier this year is Kyson Kingi. Like Fisher-Harris and Riki, Kingi is from Northland where he started in Kerikeri before shifting down to Auckland where he featured in Future Warriors fixtures and attended Mount Albert Grammar School. Kingi dabbled in some Flegg footy and despite playing most of the SG Ball campaign as a starting prop, Kingi missed the SG Ball final which Panthers won.
That means that Panthers won SG Ball, Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup this year. Panthers did that treble with Kiwi-NRL juniors in all three teams and they are now chasing another NRL championship with Fisher-Harris, Leota and Sorenson. While Panthers do a fabulous job of actually brewing a local farm system, they also invest in Kiwi-NRL talent and their connection to Northland may be the best NRL/Aotearoa region collaboration right now.
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