{"id":59128,"date":"2025-08-11T04:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/59128\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T04:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:10:13","slug":"mark-spudd-carroll-penrith-on-the-brink-of-joining-nrl-immortals-as-greatest-ever-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/59128\/","title":{"rendered":"MARK \u2018SPUDD\u2019 CARROLL: Penrith on the brink of joining NRL immortals as greatest-ever team"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wasn\u2019t around when St George went on that incredible 11-year premiership run from 1956-66.<\/p>\n

To win that many titles in a row still blows my mind nearly 60 years later.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rightly held up as the ultimate achievement in our game and a record teams from all over the globe, in a variety of codes, view as the Mt Everest of football achievements.<\/p>\n

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So, what I am about to write I do so with the greatest of respect to those legendary Dragons teams.<\/p>\n

If Penrith go on to win this year\u2019s title, their fifth in succession, they will have earned the right to join the Saints on the top step of rugby league\u2019s podium when it comes to the game\u2019s greatest feats.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not talking statistically, obviously, as Penrith will still be a long way off that magical 11-year figure if they again take possession of the Provan-Summons Trophy.<\/p>\n

But in terms of defying the odds and beating a system that is not designed to allow one team to dominate for a sustained period, it would rank right up there and maybe surpass anything we\u2019ve seen before.<\/p>\n

Those Dragons teams of the \u201850s and \u201860s were blessed with brilliant players, some of whom would go on to join the ranks of the Immortals.<\/p>\n

The fact so many of those greats stayed together in the same team for so long was no doubt a huge reason why the Red V was so successful for a decade.<\/p>\n

Penrith don\u2019t have that same luxury thanks to the salary cap.<\/p>\n

The cap\u2019s been ripping at the fabric of Ivan Cleary\u2019s side every year for the past five or six seasons.<\/p>\n

Did you know that of the 34 players who took the field in last week\u2019s Tigers-Bulldogs clash, at least 10 spent time at Penrith during their run of four consecutive premiership wins?<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re not talking fringe players.<\/p>\n

Matt Burton, Viliame Kikau, Stephen Crichton, Jarome Luai and Api Koroisau are elite NRL players who departed the Panthers when the salary cap began to bite.<\/p>\n

\"JeromeJerome Luai is starring for the Tigers. Credit: Mark Evans\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Add Spencer Leniu, James Fisher-Harris and Kurt Capewell to that list and you just shake your head as to how Ivan Cleary has managed to keep this club so competitive for so long.<\/p>\n

I was like many who thought 2025 was the year it would finally all catch up to the Panthers.<\/p>\n

A 1-5 start to the season had the premiers running last and facing a hoodoo stretching back to the start of rugby league in Australia.<\/p>\n

Since 1908, no team has lost that many games to start the year and gone on to win the comp.<\/p>\n

Yet here we are, four weeks out from the finals, and Penrith sit fourth on the ladder on the back of nine straight victories.<\/p>\n

If they keep winning \u2013 and I am mindful they have a tough run home \u2013 Cleary\u2019s men will finish in the top four.<\/p>\n

The Panthers know what to do from there.<\/p>\n

If they go on to win the premiership from where they were and after losing so many quality players, it will go down as the greatest achievement I\u2019ve witnessed in my lifetime.<\/p>\n

Superior to the Dragons\u2019 11-year title run?<\/p>\n

I will let you debate that.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s certainly a discussion worth having.<\/p>\n

AND DON\u2019T GET ME STARTED<\/p>\n

Every good football team needs a lunatic.<\/p>\n

That player who has rivals packing a rearview mirror in their playing kit just so they can keep an eye on him at all times.<\/p>\n

I think back to my playing days and there were madmen everywhere.<\/p>\n

Blokes who could hurt you either side of the ball \u2013 both legally and, at times, just the other side of the law.<\/p>\n

You needed side mirrors along with rearview mirrors to keep them in check!<\/p>\n

The no-punch rule has rid the game of a lot of that back-alley stuff but there\u2019s still room for players who like to push the boundaries.<\/p>\n

Of the teams vying for grand final glory, most have at least one borderline loose cannon.<\/p>\n

Liam Martin (Penrith), Viliame Kikau (Canterbury), Nelson Asofa-Solomona (Melbourne) and Corey Horsburgh (Canberra) immediately spring to mind when I think of players who get the eyes spinning when they cross that white line.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d hate to play against them.<\/p>\n

But at the head of the alpha male pack, I can\u2019t go past old mate Leniu.<\/p>\n

As I have written here before, I love how this bloke goes about his work.<\/p>\n

The Roosters enforcer all aggression and menace with that touch of old school craziness.<\/p>\n

Watching Leniu rip into the Dolphins while taunting the Suncorp Stadium crowd brought a smile to this old front-rower\u2019s face on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

I love a player who backs up words with deeds, lifting and inspiring teammates with a big run or monster hit.<\/p>\n

\"RoostersRoosters enforcer Spencer Leniu. Credit: Regi Varghese\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

And if the crowd\u2019s giving it to you, I don\u2019t mind a few choice words being thrown back over the fence.<\/p>\n

Leniu might give way the odd penalty and occasionally spend time in the bin, but the pay-off is he genuinely intimidates the opposition and strikes fear into them.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got a big fan right here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I wasn\u2019t around when St George went on that incredible 11-year premiership run from 1956-66. To win that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,1721,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-59128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-opinion","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}