As uncommon as they’re, the second a real sporting dynasty springs up, predictions of it is imminent demise are by no means far behind.
In the course of the previous three seasons, as they’ve turn out to be arguably the best workforce rugby league has ever identified, Penrith aren’t any exception.
In maybe probably the most enduring proof of their excellence, they’ve confirmed each a kind of calls to be wildly incorrect.
Since their first premiership win as a gaggle in 2021 they’ve survived the lack of Stephen Crichton, Kurt Capewell, Matt Burton, Spencer Leniu and Api Koroisau — and all of the whereas stored on successful and successful and successful via their particular model of rugby league brutalism.
They’ve survived all the things and defied many years of measures particularly designed to cease a run like this from taking place. There was nothing they may not overcome and so they very nicely may add a fourth-straight premiership later this 12 months.
However in releasing James Fisher-Harris to the Warriors, the Panthers aren’t simply farewelling probably the greatest forwards within the membership’s historical past, they’re dropping a chunk of their soul and one of many bedrocks that is made all this potential. It is a loss maybe not even they will maintain.
It is not a matter of merely taking the cash they’d have used on Fisher-Harris and ponying up for an additional prop, though that can nearly definitely occur.
Neither is it so simple as changing his virtues on the sphere, which shapes as a tough activity on it is personal.
Payne Haas runs for extra metres, Addin Fonua-Blake is extra blockbusting however Fisher-Harris is probably the most well-rounded props within the league – he is sturdy in yardage, passes and offloads with intelligence, and holds the center of the sphere collectively defensively.
Plus, he does all of it each time he takes the sphere with a consistency you’d count on extra from a machine than a person.
Not many can do what he does each weekend, however his affect runs deeper than that.
Success has many fathers, however ask round on the Panthers and so they’ll all inform you an identical factor. That livid high quality they play with, the willingness to all the time pay the value for achievement and the countless starvation to struggle and dominate and win – a number of the Panthers carry it in them, however a lot of it flows from Fisher-Harris.
It comes from his angle on the sphere and off it, the way in which he trains day-to-day, the toughness he exudes so effortlessly and calls for of his teammates so merely and straight that emulating it isn’t a alternative, however a calling.
At their greatest, Penrith play with the ravenous starvation of ravenous canines and Fisher-Harris is the unquestioned chief of the pack.
Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo are in all probability the 2 greatest gamers of the Panthers dynasty. Cleary shared many of the greatest moments with Crichton. Koroisau was transformative, each within the ability he introduced himself and the area he may present for others. Jarome Luai is their vitality and Dylan Edwards and Brian To’o are their consistency.
However their most enduring qualities, the issues that took them from champions to legends, are greatest represented in Fisher-Harris.
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The resolve, the energy, the consistency, the unbreakable will and the utter lack of mercy for opponents, the willingness to speak – even when Fisher-Harris is not all the time one for speaking, when he does it makes an affect, like when he declared Parramatta had been Penrith’s sons – as a result of it isn’t bragging in case you again it up.
And whereas Cleary and Yeo are the co-captains, a lot of what Fisher-Harris does nicely has been transferred into the membership’s different gamers. He does not all the time should be a captain as a result of he has turn out to be a frontrunner by nature, the sort of man others comply with simply because it is smart to take action.
You’ll be able to see items of him in gamers like Moses Leota, his partner-in-crime who found an identical relentless vitality, and in Scott Sorensen, who thrived a lot within the setting Fisher-Harris helped create he went from NRL journeyman to one of the vital embellished roughnecks within the recreation’s historical past.
There’s a clear sample to Penrith’s retention technique in recent times. To keep away from the wage cap molasses that has claimed so many budding dynasties of the previous, they needed to establish the issues of their aspect they may no do with out, the fundamental components of their success, and ensure they stored them.
You’ll be able to lose Crichton, Kikau, Koroisau, Burton and all the remainder and as long as you could have a defence that is near unbreakable, sufficient athletes to dominate the yardage recreation, Nathan Cleary’s kicking recreation and a perception you possibly can beat down a mountain.
This 12 months could possibly be a lot better than alright. Penrith are premiership favourites – once more – and the prospect of sending their departing gamers out as winners has been a propulsive drive for them many instances earlier than.
However Fisher-Harris is perhaps one of many only a few departing heroes they can not substitute. There isn’t a technique to recreate him within the mixture via gamers like Lindsay Smith, Liam Henry and no matter free agent props Penrith will throw their cash at.
If there’s somebody with Fisher-Harris’s qualities on and off the sphere lurking of their countless junior nursery, it will not come out in a single day.
You is perhaps born with it, however you continue to must study it. Fisher-Harris himself was in first grade for 4 years earlier than he became what he is turn out to be. It is the sort of factor that can not be discovered, solely uncovered, and is sort of unimaginable to purchase, as a result of it should be earned.
Penrith will not disintegrate. They’ve had an excessive amount of apply at being nice for that to occur. Come subsequent season they’re going to nonetheless be among the many title favourites together with the Broncos, who’re so not like the Panthers in fashion however so like them in method, and sure the Warriors themselves, who should really feel like they’re tantalisingly near one thing particular.
However, a few years from now, when the historical past of Penrith’s dynasty is written, this may nicely be the day that is pinpointed as the start of the top. There are some losses a workforce can’t survive, even when it does not kill them.