'Unfair': Joey calls for change amid Panthers' exodus

The Penrith Panthers will lose two stars in Jarome Luai and James Fisher-Harris at the end of the season, who will join an extensive list of players who have parted ways with the NRL powerhouse.

Since Penrith’s defeat to the Melbourne Storm in the 2020 grand final, the Panthers have lost 17 players, with many moving on to become high-profile players at their new teams.

Andrew Johns said he believed there should be a dispensation for clubs facing significant amounts of player departures, specifically for players who have developed through a team’s junior system.

“There is no real reward for producing your own players,” Johns said on Wide World of Sports’ Immortal Behaviour.

“I think there should be some dispensation for local juniors or juniors who have been in the club for, whatever it is, eight to 10 years.

“We talk about their most high-profile players … (Viliame) Kikau, (Spencer) Leniu, (Stephen) Crichton, these sorts of players, but then have a look at the fringe players.

“Wayde Egan was there years ago. J’Maine Hopgood is killing it at Parramatta, he was there. Tom Jenkins was there. Charlie Staines scored four tries on debut and he’s at the Tigers now.

Stephen Crichton (left), Viliame Kikau (left-right), James Fisher-Harris (right-left) and Brian To’o (right) during the Penrith Panthers Grand Final Parade in 2021. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Gett

“Not only are they losing their high-end players, they are also losing depth.

“It’s just unfair. It’s as simple as that, it is just unfair.”

Three-time premiership winner Fisher-Harris, who announced his exit from the club after signing with the Warriors on Wednesday, is one of many players to have developed through the Penrith junior system.

The eighth Immortal said that looking back on the Penrith team from its premiership in 2020, he believes the team could have won “six in a row” if they were to remain together.

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“If you look at their team when they won the competition three, four years ago if they kept that team, you’re talking about with luck from injury … They could’ve won six in a row,” he said.

“Fisher-Harris has been over in Australia since he was a young player. He was only 16-17.

“All that work that they put into them, Spencer Leniu or Stephen Crichton for instance. They are local juniors who have been in the system since they were 15-16 … So I really feel for Penrith.

Spencer Leniu and Stephen Crichton celebrate victory.

“They shouldn’t be punished for identifying their special juniors and putting a heap of work into them and getting them up to that level.”

Immortal Behaviour host Danika Mason asked if having an evenly distributed field of talent was important for the competition, to which Johns replied: “There are arguments for and against but they shouldn’t be punished”.

“It’d be tough because they’ve lost so many players,” Johns said about coach Ivan Cleary’s side.

“I feel for Penrith and those places with big nurseries where they lose the players they develop.”