By JOHN DAVIDSON
IT’S BEEN the talk of the NRL in the opening rounds, the fast fall of the Penrith Panthers.
After a round one win in Vegas over Cronulla, Penrith have lost a stunning five games in a row. They currently sit second from bottom on the ladder.
It’s uncharted waters for the powerhouse club that has won the past four grand finals on the bounce, and made the past five grand finals consecutively. It’s led many to question whether the Chocolate Soldiers dynamic dynasty is now over.
Some have blamed injuries at the moment, and the fact that the Panthers have to play their games away at CommBank while their home stadium is being redeveloped. But surely the biggest factor is how salary cap pressure has forced them to shed top talent every season – Burton, Kikau, Koroisau, Luai, Crichton, Fisher-Harris, Turuva, Capewell, Tamou, Hetherington, Pangai Jnr, Leniu etc – along with two assistant coaches who have become NRL head coaches.
That’s an unbelievable roster of players, and coaches, that no club would be able to cope with losing and still remain at the top.
While that is the debate down under, there is no similar way of thought in the UK when it comes to St Helens right now.
Saints dominated Super League from 2019 to 2022. They won four grand finals in a row and a Challenge Cup. They even went on to sensationally knock off the Panthers – at the foot of the mountains no less – at he start of 2023. In that period they were virtually unbeatable.
But more recently the Red V has struggled. This season they sit in fourth spot on the ladder with five wins and two losses. Not a bad record, granted, but not good enough for this high-achieving club and their supporters accustomed to constant success and being at the top.
Already St Helens have been knocked out of the Challenge Cup. Last year they scraped into the top six and this year they have been flat track bullies – bashing Salford and Cas, but losing to Hull KR and Warrington. They have a record of no wins and 13 losses against the top four teams in recent times.
Coach Paul Wellens, who took over from Kristian Woolf at the end of 2022, has copped most of the blame. Many fans want him gone.
The word ‘rebuild’ hasn’t been used, but Saints are in the middle of one.
Since their first success in 2019, the Merseyside club has farewelled an impressive list of talent, and coaches too. It includes:
1. Lachlan Coote (left for Hull KR)
2. Tommy Makinson (left for Catalans)
3. Kevin Naiqama (returned to Australia)
4. Will Hopoate (retired)
5. Regan Grace (left for rugby union)
6. Theo Fages (left for Huddersfield)
7. Lewis Dodd (left for NRL)
8. Luke Thompson (left for NRL)
9. James Roby (retired)
10. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook (retired)
11. Sione Mata’utia (retired)
12. James Bentley (left for Leeds)
13. Zeb Taia (retired)
14. Kyle Amor (left for Widnes)
15. Jack Ashworth (left for Huddersfield)
16. Joey Lussick (left for NRL)
17. Dom Peyroux (left for Toulouse)
Coach: Justin Holbrook/Kristian Woolf
That is some team. It would easily be a top four outfit if it was competing in Super League right now.
Obviously you can’t compete with father time. No one can play forever and retirements are a fact of life. But there’s certain players St Helens would have loved to keep had the cap space allowed it, like Grace, Thompson, Makinson and Coote. You can also argue that the exits of Coote and Fages gave more opportunity for Jack Welsby and Dodd to develop.
Unlike Saints, Penrith don’t have to compete with a richer, better competition stealing some of their players (apart from union with Grace). The Panthers stable have mostly jumped ship for more coin. St Helens have lost several to the NRL, and that will increase at the end of this year when Morgan Knowles lands at Redcliffe.
But the price of so much success in a four-year period is all your players are worth much more money, and deserve contract upgrades. They often earn international selection (and in Penrith’s case State of Origin honours), which further drives their value up. Other clubs can come in and can offer much more money, like Huddersfield did with Fages.
That’s how the salary cap system works, it forces talent from the top teams to the rest to try and balance the competition out.
Unlike the Panthers, St Helens also have more of an ageing side. Jonny Lomax is 34, Alex Walmsley is 35, Daryl Clark is 32, Curtis Sironen is 31, Moses Mbye is 31, Agnatius Paasi is 31, Kyle Feldt is 33, James Bell is 30, Joe Batchelor is 30, Mark Pervical is 30, Konrad Hurrell is 33. That is a lot of elder statesmen in one group.
Saints have a great crop of youngsters coming through too – Harry Robertson, George Delaney, Noah Stephens, George Whitby, Jake Burns etc. They are not at the foot of the ladder, like Penrith. But it is about getting that balance between experience and youth, between veterans and rookies, right and firing.
This season that has been difficult. Recruitment has been questionable. They brought in a fullback in Tristan Sailor and have made him play halfback. They lost a genuine 7 in Dodd and replaced him with a 1. So far it hasn’t worked.
The decision to re-sign Konrad Hurrell was an odd one. Hurrell has yet to play a Super League game this season. St Helens needed a top quality centre but didn’t sign one in the off-season.
There is still plenty of stars and skill in the Saints line-up. They are not far from the top. It would be massively shocking if they don’t at least make the playoffs this year. But to challenge Wigan and Hull KR, and better Warrington and Leigh, in the latter stages? That might be a step too far.
St Helens were outstanding over a four-year stretch, just like Penrith in the NRL. But like their Panther counterparts, they have been victims of their own success and salary cap pressure has bitten them badly.
