{"id":962303,"date":"2026-11-12T22:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T22:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/962303\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T22:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T22:42:13","slug":"nrl-world-saddened-over-devastating-news-about-panthers-cheerleaders-after-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/962303\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL world saddened over ‘devastating’ news about Panthers cheerleaders after 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL<\/a> fans and commentators are expressing their sadness for the Penrith Pantherettes<\/a> cheerleader group after the club confirmed their axing for the first time in 50 years. Panthers CEO Matt Cameron said the board wants the club to ‘reimagine’ the game day experience, and that doesn’t include cheerleaders moving forward.<\/p>\n

The Pantherettes and their management Entourage Entertainment are said to be “devastated” by the decision, which ends a long-standing tradition that started in the 1970s. “I informed the Pantherettes and the dance company yesterday that we would be discontinuing the Pantherettes program moving forward,” Cameron told The Western Weekender<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“We’ve been challenged by the board to reinvigorate and reimagine game day. As part of that, we think there’s some things that we can implement on a game day to drive membership and fan engagement.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had a lot of research put into it, a lot of discussions internally here. We’ve had member and fan surveys give us feedback on the game day experience and we’ve decided this is the time to try and reinvigorate what game day looks like, and as a result of that, I made the decision that we discontinue the program.<\/p>\n

“We are fully supportive of women and how they interact in and around the game, and in our business. We’re very grateful for what they’ve done for the club over a number of years. This decision is not a reflection on them or the dance company.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Penrith Pantherettes before an NRL game in 2024. (Photo by Jason McCawley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Panthers cheerleader Ashleigh Pitt wrote on social media: “A piece of my heart will always belong to this club. A dream I once had as a little girl became a chapter I’ll cherish forever. More than the uniform, the performances and the game days, it was the friendships formed, the people met and the memories made along the way that made this experience so special.<\/p>\n

“Thank you Penrith Pantherettes and Penrith Panthers for the best three years of my life. I’ll forever be grateful for the opportunity to live a dream I once only wished for. I came for the dream, but I’ll leave with so much more than I ever could have imagined.”<\/p>\n

NRL world reacts to axing of Panthers cheerleaders<\/p>\n

Leeanne Nicol, who was one of the original Pantherettes from the 70s, wrote on social media: “Great memories travelling around all the grounds and even did a lap of the SCG in ’76 after our under 23s won their grand final. I’m sure there will be some sad little girls who have dreamt of being a Pantherette in the future with this announcement, such a shame.”<\/p>\n

Troy Dodd of The Western Weekender was among the many to criticise the decision. “I don’t think the Penrith Panthers have made the right call in dumping the Pantherettes,” he wrote. “You can reimagine game day experience without putting young women out of a professional gig. It’s a shame the squad couldn’t be retained. Some curious decisions being made at present.”<\/p>\n

Colleague Peter Lang wrote: “I think the club is taking a lot of liberties because we’ve been so successful over the last seven years. I wonder if they’d be scaling back on membership packages and cancelling cheer squads if wasn’t doing so well. Getting less shouldn’t be the price you pay for being successful.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NRL fans and commentators are expressing their sadness for the Penrith Pantherettes cheerleader group after the club confirmed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":962304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-962303","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\/962303","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=962303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/962304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}