It isn’t straightforward to go junior for junior with the Panthers.
Penrith’s latest dynasty has been constructed on the again of growing expertise – 14 of the membership’s 17 gamers for Sunday’s grand ultimate towards Melbourne got here by means of the Panthers junior pathways.
On the coronary heart of their star-making machine is the membership’s native junior league, which all the time appears to be overflowing with future stars.
Of the 68 males’s gamers showing on grand ultimate day in each the NRL decider and the State Championship, 12 of them are merchandise of the Penrith junior competitors.
Melbourne may have only one – Newtown Jets ahead Jordin Leiu – which makes his rise to the season’s greatest day all of the extra spectacular.
“In Victoria, when you’re not on the Storm or a feeder group on the Storm it may be exhausting to progress after 20s so a whole lot of boys transfer to New South Wales or Queensland,” Leiu stated.
“However it’s getting higher in Melbourne, they’re attempting to develop these pathways and construct that into the NRL.
“There’s nonetheless a protracted strategy to go, however there’s a whole lot of us floating round attempting to make it.”
A boyhood Melbourne fan, Leiu performed his juniors with the South East Titans, who’re primarily based out of Dandenong and produced the primary born-and-bred Victorian to play NRL in former Storm and Tigers outdoors again Mahe Fonua.
Since Fonua’s NRL debut in 2012 a handful of different Victorians have cracked the NRL together with Richie Kennar, Greg Marzhew, Trent Toelau, Sua Fa’alogo and Fonua Pole.
The trickle from the Aussie rules-dominated state is gradual, however regular.
Leiu himself is not any stranger to the Sherrin and performed each sports activities rising up after initially beginning with contact rugby.
“However my aggression pushed me into league. I needed to deal with. Ultimately, I began taking part in AFL as effectively, for additional cardio,” Leiu stated.
“I performed each till I used to be 18 or so, then the Storm advised me I had to decide on as a result of I could not threat harm. I selected league and have not appeared again.”
Stints with Melbourne, Wests Tigers, Blacktown Employees and North Sydney adopted earlier than Leiu discovered a house at Newtown, a feeder membership for the Cronulla Sharks, this 12 months the place he is performed an important position within the Jets cost to the NSW Cup title.
In entrance of a rowdy crowd of over 10,000 at Parramatta Stadium final Sunday, Newtown withstood a collection of determined, last-minute raids from North Sydney to say the title.
Leiu himself twisted his approach over for a strive within the pulsating 28-22 victory over the Bears – who, paradoxically, act because the Storm’s feeder membership.
“I’d simply come on and Billy Magoulius teed me up a number of performs earlier than, he stated he’d hit me quick so keep alert,” Leiu stated.
“They acquired my legs, however I managed to twist and switch my approach by means of. That was a particular feeling in itself, I used to be screaming whereas I used to be nonetheless on the bottom, that is one of many higher emotions in life.
“When the Bears knocked on that final time I used to be on the bench, all of us began embracing, the assistant coach stated it wasn’t over as a result of there was nonetheless three seconds left however intuition took over and all of us began celebrating. It was such an ideal feeling.”
It earned the Jets their third reserve grade ultimate since 2012 and booked their passage to Stadium Australia on Sunday, the place they’re going to face Queensland Cup champions Norths Devils.
The primary recreation of grand ultimate day has attracted criticism in recent times as each second-tier sides battle for motivation per week after successful their very own grand finals.
However the Jets are locked in. Coach George Ndaira made a degree of mentioning the State Championship within the aftermath of the win over the Bears because the Jets look to reclaim the trophy they final received in 2019.
Leiu is definite he will not carry a premiership hangover into Sunday as he proudly represents Victoria on the season’s greatest day.
“We needed to rejoice the win, successful the premiership was our purpose all 12 months, nevertheless it was a 24 hour factor,” Leiu stated.
“We acquired it out of the way in which, and we earnt it, however there’s nonetheless one to go and George stated that straight after the sport, he made positive we saved our footy hats on.
“Our mentality is treating it like a mini-State of Origin. These Queenslanders are coming right here and we will ship them residence.
“I have been getting messages from household and associates in Victoria and from in all places, wishing me luck. I am positive a whole lot of them are going to tune in.”