Aug 19th, 2019

Aug 19th, 2019

Rugby league legend Peter Sterling says the window of opportunity for the Panthers to win a premiership has slammed shut in their face, pointing the finger at a questionable couple of years of roster management as the key to their downfall.

Speaking to James Bracey for Wide World of Sports' Sterlo's Wrap, the four-time premiership-winning halfback read out a list of players who had left the Panthers in the last couple of years and wondered why the club had taken themselves back into a rebuilding phase before having a proper crack at winning a title with a star-studded core.

Among the stars who are now playing at other clubs, Sterling identified Matt Moylan and Bryce Cartwright as players who could have led a charge to the promised land while puzzling over the recent departures of talented outside backs Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Waqa Blake.

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"I'm just trying to figure out where it all went wrong for the Panthers," Sterling said, predicting that they would miss the top eight this season and no longer had claims to be a genuine top four side in the next couple of seasons ahead.

"Three or four seasons ago I was their biggest fan and you could see that they were bringing together this squad that I felt were going to be playing grand finals or winning premierships in a short period of time.

" ... the window of opportunity that just appeared to be on the horizon has disappeared and we're now back into the rebuild phase and I don't think Penrith will play finals this year.

"I don't see them being a top four side, again, there's so much talent in the squad and we just had some footage there of some good young players coming through, (Brent) Naden has been great since coming in, but they're now in the infancy of their NRL careers and it's going to take time to get up those 40, 60, 80, 100 games that you need, we're now back kind of to where we started."

Bryce Cartright (left), Matt Moylan (centre) and Trent Merrin (right) have all departed the Penrith Panthers. (AAP)

The Panthers looked set to launch into a dominant period after then coach Anthony Griffin took them to the second week of finals in 2016, with their season finishing in a competitive loss to a Canberra side that had finished second on the ladder.

At that stage Moylan was 25, had been given the captaincy and was considered one of the most exciting attacking players in the competition.

Elsewhere the squad had the experience of Peter Wallace at hooker, emerging youngsters Nathan Cleary and Dylan Edwards breaking through for their first games in the top grade and a forward pack that had a good balance of toughness and skill.

They've been favoured to go to the next level and contend for a premiership in every year since but constant roster changes, combined with off-field turmoil and the bloody axing of Griffin in favour of a return to the coaching of Ivan Cleary have stopped the progression many experts were expecting.

Which led Sterling to his list.

"I've just written some names down, and it's a long list, and I'm talking about when Matt Moylan and Bryce Cartwright looked to be the absolute future of that club," Sterling said.

"We're now looking at young players coming through, so I don't quite understand why we're back in the rebuilding stage when we had Moylan (Sharks), Cartwright (Titans), Watene-Zelezniak (Bulldogs) who's at another club, Waqa Blake (Eels) is gone, there was Josh Mansour, Dean Whare, an emerging Nathan Cleary, Campbell-Gillard (all four are still at the Panthers) was playing great football, Kikau (still at Panthers), Harawira-Naera (Bulldogs) was there, Trent Merrin (Leeds Rhinos) was there, James Tamou (still at Panthers), Peter Wallace (retired) and James Maloney (still at Panthers) running the show, and when Peter Wallace wasn't there you had Katoa and Egan (both still at Panthers) coming through..."

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Much of that roster management was overseen by Penrith's former general manager of football Phil Gould, who can count the healthiest junior development system in the game as his crowning achievement, yet the ultimate goal of a premiership slipped by.

Currently sitting ninth on the ladder, the Panthers' 2019 season, by mathematics at least, hasn't yet been consigned to the dustbin.

However, should they fail to qualify for the top eight Panthers fans will have every right to look at the list Sterling has compiled and wonder how their club allowed the game's most promising roster build to turn to dust before a shot was fired.