That will allow the group to focus on its charter, which is to ensure the football team is sufficiently resourced to ensure it is a play-off mainstay in the years ahead. To that end, the club is well down the track in negotiations to ensure Moylan, the captain and face of the Panthers, finishes his career where it started. Man in demand: Penrith star Matt Moylan. Credit:Getty Images Such is the esteem in which Moylan is held at the foot of the mountains that he was preferred as skipper, despite a raft of senior candidates, including Peter Wallace, Jamie Soward, Trent Merrin, Sam McKendry and Elijah Taylor. Which is why Penrith powerbrokers are well into discussions to make him a one-club man. "We've got Matt Moylan tied up until the end of next year, but we're in negotiations for a long-term deal with him … to extend him four years after that," Fletcher said. "He is one of the nicest young blokes you will ever meet, he's a Penrith boy who loves playing football and the local community think the world of him. If we can get him back on the paddock next week to regain his old form and add some new form, you don't know what he could be.

"He'd be the face of Penrith among all the young blokes going forward, you'd think that would entice the young blokes to sign up down the track long term. "Gus [Panthers supremo Phil Gould] is dealing with him at the moment and hopefully that will be completed in the near future. We feel it's the right time to do it with all of our young blokes coming through and the opening of the $21 million academy. Once they see that, it would be very hard to not want to play here in the future. No one has got anything like it. That's all tied into the future with our young people." Moylan, who has been touted as possibly the NRL's first $2 million-a-season player, is expected to make his long-awaited return from a back injury against Parramatta next weekend. The Panthers are poised to begin construction of an aged-care centre later this year, while a development application for 859 units to be built next to the club is expected to be ratified by council in December. Fletcher said a percentage of the unit sales, expected to equate to $17 million, would automatically go into the club's coffers. "We're spending $8 million on our club in Port Macquarie to refurbish it," Fletcher said. "If we don't do any other capital items in the next 2½ years, we could be debt free.

"The beauty of that is we can concentrate on our core business, which is football. We can invest money into football to ensure we have one of the best sides in the NRL. "We now need to get a following like Brisbane and Canterbury, get the whole district behind us. The only way to do that is to consistently win games. "If our fans go the football and we can have the long-term depth in our NRL squad, we're a 70 to 80 per cent chance of winning every football game. "I think with the age of our roster that's achievable from 2017. The future is looking so good in 2017, '18 and '19 with all our young players. We'd be in a position financially to then bring in one or two marquee players each year, which could make us a superpower. "There's probably no reason why we shouldn't: we've got about 9000 juniors, we've got the best academy in Australia and the club is prepared to invest what it takes to be competitive in the NRL. We're fully focused on that."

NRL