{"id":741624,"date":"2026-06-17T04:31:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T04:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/741624\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T04:31:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T04:31:25","slug":"jenkins-reveals-he-was-close-to-leaving-penrith-for-a-second-time-the-western-weekender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/741624\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenkins reveals he was close to leaving Penrith for a second time \u2022 The Western Weekender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Panthers winger Tom Jenkins. Photo: Melinda Jane.<\/p>\n

Panthers fans far and wide celebrated the re-signing of the NRL\u2019s leading try scorer Tom Jenkins last Friday afternoon, but what they may not know is how close it came to almost not happening.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old signed a new three-year deal with the club last week that will see him in a Panthers jersey until the end of the 2029 NRL season.<\/p>\n

However, speaking with the media on Tuesday, Jenkins revealed that he almost signed elsewhere after talks between the club and his manager broke down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a few times over the past few weeks things were getting a bit \u2018hairy\u2019 and I wasn\u2019t sure what my future was going to look like but I had faith in my manager and I had faith in the club that we\u2019d be able to get a new deal done,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn saying that, there was probably a few days there, a few weeks there, where I wasn\u2019t too sure where I\u2019d end up. I\u2019m glad to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Thomas Jenkins celebrates a try. Photo: NRL Photos.<\/p>\n

Currently leading the NRL with 20 tries to his name, the man they call \u201cMilky\u201d was in high demand from rival clubs needing a gun try scorer on their roster.<\/p>\n

Jenkins said he had some tantalising offers on the table but wouldn\u2019t reveal which clubs were chasing his signature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were definitely a few clubs I was heavily considering especially when talks were sort of breaking down here. I won\u2019t name them just out of respect for them but obviously I have a lot of appreciation, and they were really good in the whole process of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jenkins said talks with the Panthers almost broke down over money, with the Young Cherrypickers junior wanting to be paid what he believed he deserved.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell there\u2019s a salary cap squeeze here and as much as money\u2019s not a massive deal breaker, there does come a time where you sort of have to understand value and what you deserve,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tom Jenkins chats to the media on Tuesday. Photo: Melinda Jane.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s also a price to pay when you\u2019re staying at a good club like Penrith. It was just about finding that happy medium that suited myself and suited the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Jenkins did leave the Panthers at the end of this season, it wouldn\u2019t have been the first time. In 2024, he signed with the Newcastle Knights on a two-year contract before departing one year in due to several factors. In 2025, he returned to Penrith after pleading with coach Ivan Cleary to give him another chance.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he had any hesitation about leaving again after his disappointing stint in Newcastle when he last departed, Jenkins emphatically said \u2018no\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely not! I think I\u2019ve matured so much as a player and I knew that the clubs interested and the ones that I was considering were such good clubs and had good cultures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it wasn\u2019t a hesitation to leave, but more a preference to stay. That\u2019s what my mindset was around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Try-scoring superstar Thomas Jenkins. Photo: NRL Photos.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nathan Taylor is the Weekender’s Deputy Editor and Senior Sports Writer. He also compiles the weekly Chatter on the Box TV column. Nathan is an award-winning journalist, who has worked at the Weekender for a decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panthers winger Tom Jenkins. Photo: Melinda Jane. Panthers fans far and wide celebrated the re-signing of the NRL\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-741624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741624","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=741624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}