Moylan move could dent Panthers revival

The surprising suggestion that Penrith skipper Matt Moylan could be on the way out of the Panthers organisation has the potential to leave the club’s revival with tainted and irreversible damage.

Make no mistake, Matt Moylan is the pin-up boy of the Penrith Panthers. 

He’s talented, has football nous and is a local prodigy. He plays a key position on the field, and is marketable, sleek and has the model looks off it.

PRODIGAL: Matt Moylan. 

If you rewind to Gus Gould’s arrival back at the Nepean in 2011, you’ll remember the gutting and broomstick he put through the club’s roster. You’ll remember the overhaul of the business, the bold statements about being the country’s most recognisable sports brand, and the now infamous five-year plan.

While you might question many of Gus’ claims and hang the plans out to dry, it is undeniable that the influence of Gould has almost single-handedly turned a floundering franchise into an NRL powerhouse.

Just this week, the club put out a statement detailing how every one of their sides had made the finals for only the fourth time in the club’s 50-plus year history. And in a first, they have achieved for a second consecutive year.  

Gould’s revolution was kick-started in 2012 when he brought in Ivan Cleary and began the turnaround.

Almost parallel to the new era was the emergence of Baulkham Hills-born Matt Moylan. 

A local junior who was first off what would turn into a conveyer-belt of NRL players produced from the local Penrith district.

Bryce Cartwright and Matt Moylan have been the leading figures in Penrith's impressive junior-to-NRL transmission rate. 

At fullback, Moylan played in arguably the most prodigious position on the field outside of the traditional owner of rugby league sides, the halfback.  

His playing talents quickly shone through; he began to find his feet in the media appearing on The Footy Show as a regular; and his quick-wit, humour and good looks would have had marketing guru’s rubbing their hands together.

He fitted in perfectly to the commercial and operational redesign of the Panthers at-large. So much so, in 2016 he was handed the club’s captaincy.

It was a valiant decision, and with a squad so young it had the potential to work.

Without drawing a comparison too wild, Moylan has a tinge of former Liverpool footballer Steven Gerrard about him. And so does his situation.

Local junior, poster boy, all the talent in the world, the ability to influence others through his own actions.

POSTER BOY: Moylan appears to have it all. 

But what he hasn’t fully captured yet is the persistence of effort, a resilience. 

In the age of modern-day footballers, it’s probably no surprise. But will this be the career-defining learning curve for Moylan, or the signal of the end of his time at Penrith?

In 2015, Gus Gould made an eerily similar and surprising decision to sack then Panthers coach Ivan Cleary and bring in Anthony Griffin.  

At the time it was odd and didn’t really make sense.

While the merits of that decision are a debate for another article, Moylan was still able to continue his rise under new coach Griffin.

He made the New South Wales side, Australian squad and was instrumental in the club’s run into the finals last season.

All while wearing the captain’s metaphorical armband. So it’s hard to work out wear it’s all gone wrong.

MIXED FORM: Penrith's form this year has been indifferent, but they've made the finals. 

Indeed, maybe both parties have reasons for wanting a change.

It Moylan is unhappy and dismayed with his current predicament, maybe a move would be best the best thing for him. A shift away from the prodigal son paradigm.

Maybe the Panthers have realised they don’t have the full deck of cards required to achieve their goal of winning another premiership and see the departure of Moylan as a way of securing what or who they need.

Like the loss of Cleary, perhaps to get where you want to go, you don’t always arrive with those who you thought you would.

But there would be a real sense of disenchantment if Matt Moylan wasn’t involved in completing Penrith’s revival.

He’s been at the front of it, at the back of it, and in the thick of it.

Chronologically, in a positional sense, and in terms of the operation respectively. 

The Anthony Griffin Gamble

Phil Gould shocked the Rugby League world in mid-October by sacking then Head Coach of the Penrith Panthers, Ivan Cleary. It came out of the blue, it was unexpected, and it was almost mystifying. It went about everything Gould had been building the Panthers to since joining the club as Executive General Manager in 2011. 

As a fan, you questioned whether the much hyped five-year plan, which Cleary had been brought in to kick start, had been thrown out the window. 

Gould even went as far to say Cleary’s sacking was a ‘gut feeling’ he had at the time. 

What was more mystifying than the proverbial punting of Cleary, was the reigning in of ex-Broncos Coach, Anthony Griffin. 

While Griffin has now been in place on the east side of the Nepean for well over a month, the question has to be asked: what can Anthony Griffin do for the Panthers in season 2016 and beyond?   

An awkward looking Gus Gould & Anthony Griffin at the Head Coach's unveiling.  

Griffin was handpicked by Gould without board consultation or any recruitment process taking place. 

He is a one-club NRL coach, racking up 101 games at the helm of the Brisbane Broncos from 2011-2014. 

He has had a long coaching career, dating back to the late 90’s where he was involved with various teams in the Queensland competitions. 

He was an assistant at the Melbourne Storm under Chris Anderson, had a season at the Broncos as Assistant Coach to Ivan Henjak, and then was thrust into the Head Coaching role after Henjak was sacked. 

While a credentialed and respected custodian, the man himself doesn’t strike you as the most inspirational bloke on the planet with his relaxed and simple demeanor. 

But maybe that is his greatest strength, or maybe that’s all we can see from the distance of the couch.

The 49-year-old comes to Panthers at a time of transition, much similar to that of his time at the Broncos. 

In Brisbane, Griffin was the coach of the NYC under 20’s team in 2008 which went all the way to the Grand Final. A few years later, Griffin became first-grade coach and was charged with assimilating many of his young crop from 08’ into the top team.

The Red-Hill franchise would have thought Hook’s experience working with the youngsters would help their transition into first grade footballers. 

While debate on whether he achieved that can be left to the experts, Griffin was unable to take his Brisbane first-grade side to the next level, with finishes of 3^rd in 2011, 8^th in 2012, 12^th in 2013, and 8^th in 2014. 

He would eventually be pushed out of the club to allow for the return of Super-coach and Broncos kingpin, Wayne Bennett.

It could be argued that given the success of some of the Bronco’s youngsters this year under Bennett Griffin was indeed successful in transitioning some of the youngster’s into quality first-graders. 

So if Griffin is a good coach from that perspective, but is not quite a coach who can take a side to the next-level of premiership opportunities, why have Penrith signed him?

Under the tutelage and guidance of Gus Gould, the Panthers have for the past three years driven a recruitment strategy based around developing many of their talented juniors. 

In the last couple of years, the likes of Matt Moylan, Bryce Cartwright and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak have emerged from the vast Penrith District Junior Rugby League catchment to debut under the coaching of Ivan Cleary.

Cleary appeared to have the right nouse and judgement on how much the juniors’ could handle, and when they were ready. He wasn’t afraid to give someone a start but was timely and measured when he did.

Cleary’s sacking followed an 11^th place finish for his side; obviously not what the excellence-seeking Panthers would have liked, but after a season of almost catastrophic injuries, many commentators gave them the ‘unlucky, move on to next year’ summary.

It’s difficult to understand why he was let go, but it’s even more difficult to picture Anthony Griffin leading the Panthers to a premiership.

Gould must see something in Griffin that the regular punters can’t, but he has taken a huge gamble on the future of the club by investing in Griffin. 

Perhaps Griffin is a stop-gap coach while the club waits for a world-beater of the Craig Bellamy mold. His ability to work with younger players - who at the Broncos have long lauded him as a reason to their success - could be what the Panthers needed. 

Maybe that’s why Gould brought him in, to help transition more of the juniors into first grade. 

With the club having won the 2015 NYC competition in 2013 and 2015, the conveyer belt of juniors is well and truly operating. 

Indeed maybe Gould knows that the Panthers are three-to-four years away from being title contenders, not one-to-two as the original five-year plan would suggest.

What’s clear is the appointment of Anthony Griffin by Gus Gould to coach the Penrith Panthers in 2016, is one of the maestro’s biggest plays during his forty-plus years in Rugby League. 

Whether that leaves Griffin with a mountain of pressure to carry, or Gould takes the responsibility himself remains to be seen. 

Let’s just hope those juniors can keep feeding into the NRL side and their talent, along with the structures and systems in place at the Panthers, can finally awake the ‘sleeping giants’ of the NRL. 

It’s been far too long for the mountain-men.