Cast your mind back to 2014. Ivan Cleary’s band of young misfits and unwanted journeymen had just fallen 18-12 to Canterbury in the preliminary finals.
It was an agonising defeat for a Penrith side barely rated a chance of even making it to September, let alone 80 minutes away from a grand final.
And yet it appeared as if something special was building at the foot of the mountains.
At least, coach at the time Ivan Cleary thought so.
“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” he said in the post-match press conference.
“We’ve made grand finals in the 16s, 18s, NSW Cup and got close in the NRL, so all in all it’s been a good year for the club.”
The 2015 season was a write-off. A season ravaged by injuries, highlighted by the fact that Cleary was forced to field 11 different halves combinations throughout the year.
And later he joined the casualty ward with Anthony Griffin believed to be the man capable of taking the Panthers to the next level.
General manager Phil Gould did not even see the need to conduct any interviews. That’s how certain he was that Griffin was the right candidate.
Yet at the end of 2016, Griffin sat in the same spot Cleary did only two years prior, but this time it was after a semi-final defeat to Canberra.
Then captain Matt Moylan admitted: “We’re moving in the right direction. With the players coming through we’re confident and we’ve got some good experience coming to the club.”
And so, the Panthers were still moving in the right direction. They were still building something special.
By the end of the 2017 season, after a 13-6 loss to Brisbane in week two of the finals, Peter Wallace mirrored Moylan’s sentiments from the year prior.
“Obviously playing finals at a young age can only be a good experience, we’ll be better as a club next year.”
The cycle continued.
Griffin was later removed, caretaker coach Cameron Ciraldo was brought in and there was another semi-final exit, followed by the all-too-familiar speech about the potential at the club.
“There’s some potential there and we’ve got to make sure we realise that,” he said.
“I’ve seen where the club has come from to where we are now, I can see we’ve got a couple of steps further in us.”
After winning the premiership in 2003, Penrith went on to record just two top-eight finishes in the following decade.
Since 2014, they have qualified four times and set up the foundation for long-term success.
Penrith were a team of enormous potential back in 2014 and that tag can still be applied to them now, as they head into the off-season wondering what could have been.
And that word – potential – is one that should be seen as an insult.
Potential itself is defined as having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future.
The key word here being future.
Each year since 2016, the Panthers have exited the competition two games short of a grand final berth.
And each and every time, that word “potential” has been used to brightly advertise the positive future at the club.
However, it is a term that the next coach of the Penrith Panthers needs to completely disregard.
This is a team that can win the premiership next year. And they need to be judged accordingly.
Not as a bunch of kids who are finding their way and will get there eventually.
While James Maloney’s arrival added some much-needed experience and composure to Penrith’s spine, he alone will not fix the fundamental issues holding the mountain men back from title contention.
Maloney’s performance on the weekend against Cronulla was poor but equally diabolical was Penrith’s ball-handling in the opening half of the contest.
In the past five years, the Panthers have finished right near the top of the competition for handling errors, missed tackles and penalties conceded.
The talent at the foot of the mountains is undeniable. You only have to look at the runaway try to Waqa Blake on Friday night to realise this.
But this has never been the problem.
Rather, the issue is that too often the Panthers rob themselves of any chance of showing of these skills because they simply can’t get the fundamentals right.
Trailing 18-2 to Cronulla at halftime on the weekend, Penrith headed into the sheds with just over 30 per cent of the ball after completing just 53 per cent of their sets.
In the second 40, however, their completion rate stood at 80 per cent and they came close to claiming the biggest comeback victory in finals history.
Regardless of who is selected as Penrith’s coach for next year, the emphasis has to be on building pressure first. Then the points will come.
Otherwise, the slow starts will continue and they will remain a team of potential and nothing else.
Gould came under fire for the sacking of Griffin last month, with his own ego cited by many as the underlying motive behind the shocking move.
The 60-year old claimed that under Griffin, the Panthers would not have been able to win a premiership.
That comment only makes his next decision the biggest of his time at Penrith.
If Griffin was not the man to help the Panthers become more than just a team of potential, who is?
Ciraldo has proven himself to be a handy replacement in the past month, with his greatest attribute being his close connection with the club and intimate knowledge of the playing group.
But he is only 33-years old. The assistant coaching position is his rightful level.
The main role, however, is suited for someone more experienced. Potentially Wayne Bennett.
Maybe Cleary. But doubts remain over whether the specialist at rebuilding teams is just as adept in taking them to the next level.
It’s all speculation at the moment.
What is certain, however, is that this is one decision Gould must get right.
Penrith may have the strongest junior development system in the competition. But the next challenge is actually developing these players into premiership winners.
And until this happens, the Panthers will remain just a team of potential and nothing more.
