Speaker 1: Now it's time for tensions that were running high of
Penrith Panthers Podcast presented by the Western Weekender Thanks to
Penrith Toyota. Here's at Troy Dodds and Nathan Taylor.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to tenant joining high Penrith Panthers
podcast presented by the Western Weekend. Of This is episode
sixty nine. I'm Troy, Oh, it's joined by Nathan Taylor. Hello, Nathan,
Hello Troy. We are the voice of regular league in
Penroth and we love talking all things Penrith Panthers. For
thirty five years, the Western Weekender has led the way
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an EV that will help at the petrol crisis. On
the agenda today, we preview a good Friday clash that
has Match of the Round written all over it. How
we both somehow missed the the West. Plus do you
still listen to the footy on the radio where we've
got a new game after of course Nathan was victorious,
and I've got some breaking news on Nathan's prize coming
up as well. But look, let's get underway and Nathan
look all eyes on Combat Stadium for a good Friday.
We've got a public holiday game the Panthers and the
Storm on Friday night. Now, Penrith obviously playing sensationally the
Storm of lost two in a row.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's very unusual for the Storm and actually
worries me quite a bit heading into too Friday night.
Obviously Penn had such a sensational start to the year.
But there's this little part of me that you know,
still fully not you know, don't have don't have faith
in Penrith every week, despite what they've done in everything
over the last four or five years, you still get
worried when you see the Storm on the schedule. So
I'm expecting a tight class, you know, Melbourne. I can't
imagine when they last lost three in a row, let
alone two in a row. So this is shaping up
to be a very very spicy encounter.
Speaker 2: I'm sure. Yeah, Look, I'm gonna admit I'm a little
bit worried as well, only because of exactly that. Yeah,
three in a row would be you know, we don't
really talk about Melbourne in those sort of terms. And
of course they had the big opening start of the
season fifty two to four. They thrash the Eels, then
they thrash the Dragons forty six twenty. But then yeah,
they're basically in two games given up leads to the
Broncos and then the Cowboy.
Speaker 3: And I'll saying this a few weeks ago, Troy, you
know that desk they are they're too to no at
the time. But the opposition that they came across, you know,
Eels and Dragons, you know, they you know, you can't
really tell, you know, how good a team is going
when you're playing teams that haven't played finals football for
a very long time. So they've come upup and you know,
last few weeks they've come up against you know, Cowboys.
I mean, who would have thought they would beat the Cowboys?
The loose to the Cowboys. Sorry, but you know, maybe
this is the Melbourne storm we're going to get this year.
Maybe they're not going to be a top four team.
Maybe they're not going to be as consistent threat as
we thought. They had so many change in the off season,
a lot of personnel left, a lot of people have
become injured as well. Obviously we have some news this
week with one of their players ending up in hospital.
So you know, maybe this is not the Storm team
we're used to and maybe this is what we're going
to get all year. Who knows.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was of course too. We come a Kamika
suffered a stroke. That's saying yeah, and that was in
intensive care for a while, out of intensive care now,
but that's another Storm forward after eli Qatara of course
late last year, that appears to going to now be
out for a very extended period, if if not for good.
You know when these sort of things.
Speaker 3: Happen, yeah, hundred percent. So you know, a bit of
a bit of a blow to the Storm this week.
But obviously Penroth missing Mitch Kenny, we know how important
he is. Whenever he's not there, Penoth do struggle a
little bit because he's such an important part. Yes he
doesn't pick up our player points every week, Troy, but
as for consistency, he's probably the most consistent every week.
You know, he's always topping tackle counts and he just
does so many things you don't really see. But so
I think Penethy are going to miss him this week,
but I imagine Freddy lusk is going to come in
and replace replace Kenny on Friday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you would imagine. So we're recording this before the
team list comes out, but that would be the logical solution.
Speaker 3: I haven't said about Freddy Lussik is the most fittest
player that we that I coached during the preseason.
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, well that's that's good news.
Speaker 3: It was huge, like huge praise for someone that just
came to the club.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, no, absolutely, well yeah, look yes it looked
Peter disrupted as well. But the storm, I just feel like,
you know, when we talk about the you know, the
power of the storm, like think about that. Elie GeTe
Elliott has are my favorite players in terms of the
Melbourne players, and then Ryan Pappenhausen they lost him unexpectedly.
So I know that you don't think about the word
rebuild when it comes to Melbourne, but you know, in
terms of what was on the whiteboard this time last
year and how the Melbourne team looked. It's actually very
different now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like Xavier coach is obviously inja Nick meanie. I
know he didn't play last week. I'm not sure what
the goal is this week recording before the team list
are announced. So they've had a lot of a lot
of change and a lot of there's one one player missing,
but a lot have you know, have come out of
the side, so that that's going to be quite disruptive, so.
Speaker 2: And certainly worth knowing. Of course, we always wondered how
Melbourne would back up from losing a second straight Grand five.
Ye that would you know, they haven't won a Grand
Final since since twenty twenty when, of course they peat
the Panthers. And when you lose two in a row
and you haven't won one for a while and you've
lost some prelims along the way and everything like that,
you know, it starts able to get into the head
of some of those players who I guess haven't tasted
that toughness Melbourne storm success. So I don't know. We'll
see on Friday night because Yese Penworth put the cleanness
through Melbourne or beat Melbourne by handy score line, maybe
for the first time in a long time. A lot
of those shows are going to be talking about the
Melbourne storm.
Speaker 3: Maybe yeah, I mean, but they've still got some as
we said, they're still some great threats. You know, Harry
Grant still scares the crap out of me what he
did last year, and that that gay and that Penrith
really to win to maybe push for a top four spot,
and you know he just did this wizard react. You know,
dummy Halfron scoring under the post was just genius. And
you know Penoth loss that that night, but that they
do have a lot of scary players, drove us km
Munster obviously their new fallback has you know, I haven't again,
I know you haven't seen the press yet, but he was.
He was praising him a lot yesterday in the press conference, so.
Speaker 2: And worth doing too. You know when we talk about
scoring points, and we know Penris defense has been on
song this year, but you know Melbourne's average points scored
this year thirty four, Penris thirty five. So you know,
both teams are scoring plenty of points, just going to
come down to exactly how well both sides defend. It's
a bit of a weird one crowd wise, because I
would anticipate you could get a really good crowd there
on Good Friday. But obviously you've got, you know, a
lot of other factors at play. You know, there's a
lot of family stuff happening, people go away, you know,
maybe there's not a Melbourne fans you know, to show Yep,
there's no Melbourne fans. There's not a lot of stuff
open beforehand, you know, so it's not like you're like, well, yeah,
let's go have a day somewhere or go out for
some drinks and dinner. Like you're going to probably struggle
to find a lot of places that are that are open,
although maybe a little bit more these days than in
the past. But but yeah, just I don't know what
gauge I've got on that crowd.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think it'd be upwards of fifteen
thousand at least. You'd hope they would like to get
close to twenty I dare say, because there was what
twenty three there. Yeah, great crowd in the end, and
I heard someone of my mates texted me is like
it's the biggest ever Penrith regular season home crowd because
obviously they used to play at Penis Stadium, a lot
that could only fit twenty two and a half. Okay,
so if they're getting close to twenty three thousand, that
was officially the biggest home crowd paned this home crowd
for a regular season game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'll raise a debate. It must have the protest,
but it must.
Speaker 3: Have got mentioned on a broadcast because my mate wouldn't
just know that he's a Paramatta fan, So someone must
have said that on TV.
Speaker 2: I'll raise a protest, Okay, go on. Well, and I'm
sure I'll be protested against my protest. But Penrith at
the home team with things like Magic Round Oh right, yeah,
which are regular season.
Speaker 3: Okay, well if you take that into consideration, sure, and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, look I'm not sure about this one. But you know,
Penrith have played home games at other venues. There was
a time I think, I almost want to say it
was two thousand and four, but I've got this not
quite right in my head, but where Penrith was undergoing
a bit of an upgrade at a stadium, and Penrith
actually had a few home games I think at the
Olympic Stadium, really the Stadium Australia.
Speaker 3: Do not remember that.
Speaker 2: We'll get to producer Lucy onto that Okay, you know
all round it here Now she's a producer of the podcast,
and we'll see if I can confirm that, because I
reckon that would have been.
Speaker 3: A big a year after they won the gold.
Speaker 2: Might not have been two thousand and four. She will
check that, but yes, there was. Again there was a
period I reckon.
Speaker 3: We played the Roosters. Do you think Penrith have gotten well,
I'm just staying and.
Speaker 2: Four that's straight after Grand Final maybe, but anyway, look,
certainly one of the biggest because yes.
Speaker 3: Who was calling the game on Saturday believed much of it,
which we're going to get.
Speaker 2: Into, which we should get onto just a moment before
we do. Panthers Melbourne Friday night at eight o'clock. That
this is one of those quirky weekends where there's no
six o'clock game because of Good Friday. There's a four
o'clock game, both games on Friday on Channel nine and
also of course on KO and Fox League. But get
out to the game, get your tickets, and you know
there was as a great Panthers crowd there on Saturday nights.
It'd be good to see a big crowd there. And
you've got three days to recover from it all with
the public holidays.
Speaker 3: And hopefully, hopefully they do everyone a favor and continue
the winning streak.
Speaker 2: Do you think they bring in any extra fish products
because it is Good Friday?
Speaker 3: Because a lot of.
Speaker 2: People, a lot of people don't eat.
Speaker 3: I won't be eating any meat on Good Friday.
Speaker 2: You don't eat meat on Good Friday.
Speaker 3: I never have, No, I'm very loyal to the Lord.
Speaker 2: Yep. If my mum's listening, neither do I. But yeah, yeah,
but you're right.
Speaker 3: Maybe Combat Stadium should have some more fish and chips
on hand, I think for the patrons.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I've just seen the front of Extra Time
this week and maccas is advertising the filid of fish
on Friday.
Speaker 3: Staple had many filid of fishes on only time a
year I would have a fillid of fish would be
on Good Friday.
Speaker 2: How many filid of fishes Macas would sell in a week?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: Who's a week?
Speaker 1: Not?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: We all love Macas, you know, like go and have
a quarter pounds or a cheese. But you might try
one of the new burghers. They've got some new stuff
with ca pop Demon hunters at the moment. Yep, you know,
maybe you get into a you know, one of the
things we're telling Greg about a breakfast, they're a McMuffin but.
Speaker 3: With a honey griddle griddles, Yes, but who says.
Speaker 5: You know what?
Speaker 2: I feel like that I have fill the fish from macas.
Speaker 3: Look, Troy, I reckon. We could probably find that out
pretty easily. We've got some good contacts. They could probably
tell us the filler to fish ratio over there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well I don't want to find out, but I reckon. Yeah,
just com make stadium? Are are they going to happen?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm and you know what, I'll do the rounds.
I'll go for a walk on Friday at Kombank Stadium
and I'll see what if they're selling anything different. They
might be a seafood platter, seafood basket from cocktail.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe. By the way, it is the fiftieth meeting
of the Panthers and the Storm, so a bit of
a milestone game, and the Storm have won thirty three
of those games. Penrith sixteen. Penrith has sort of come
back in that tally in recent years. It was pretty
woeful before that. But yes, thirty three to sixteen as
it stands right now and as far as Penrith home
matches are concerned, Melbourne fourteen and Penrith nine, So that's
the story there. And yeah, com Mats Stadium, of course
they played last year. That would have been the only
time that Peneth and Melbourne played at Combank. And the
Panthers got the chocolates Storm Chocolates with point golden.
Speaker 3: Point because remember Nathan Cleary got a field goal and
then Harry Grant dived, yes, and they took it away
from Nathan ran into most of the odor or something
like that because they thought Moses was a blocker and
I dare.
Speaker 2: Say we've forgotten about that now, by the way, blockers
did that for a bit. Now move on.
Speaker 3: There's always something else they tend to focus on.
Speaker 2: All right now, Yes, last Saturday, Nathan, Now we spoke
on the podcast last week that you weren't going to
be here, No, you were. You had a wedding of
course of a former Western weekend of Journo. But Nathan,
as it turns out, neither of us were at the game.
Can you believe we.
Speaker 3: Could have bumped that crowd figure up by two on
last Saturday? So what happened to you? Troy because obviously,
you know you very rarely missed the Panthers game. It's
you know, you mark your calendar every year, you tell
people do not book anything on these games, do not
have your wedding special events, functions or whatever, because I
have to be at the Panthers game. I'm very similar.
So how the hell do you end up not going
to Combat Stadium last Saturday?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, last week, Nathan, I was headed to murray Bridge.
Murray Bridge is in South Australia. It's about an hour
out of Adelaide, and there's a conference every year. It's
the Local Independent News Association Conference, and there is about
one hundred and sixty publishers who come together, so about
two hundred people because people obviously bring extras and there
special guests and whatnot. And it's basically independent news publishers,
whether they're in print, digital and what not, coming together
to share ideas here about industry updates, grants and all
of those sort of things. So off I went to
that and I made a very smart decision. At least,
I thought that I would fly the conference finished on
Friday at five o'clock, I would rush back to Adelaide
Airport and catch an eight o'clock flight, so I had
sort of the whole weekend back in Penrith. Now get
to the airport on Friday night and suddenly, just a
minute before we're supposed to board for light cancel. You're kidding,
and now that's you know, look, that's disappointing. But I think, okay,
you get put up at a hotel something like that.
I then learned you don't get put up at a
hotel in that circumstance, because it was that Sydney Airport
had closed.
Speaker 3: Nothing to do with the airline was ready to fly.
Speaker 2: They were ready to fly, ready to go. The pilot was,
you know. So anyway, I found a hotel and on
the way on the in the uber. On the way
to the hotel, a text from Courtus pops up and
it says, you know your new flight six am, And
I'm like, beauty, six am, I'll fly straight out be home.
Well it was actually six am Sunday, so as you
can imagine, I darted straight on the phone at Quantus.
But whilst I was on hold for an hour and
seventeen minutes Cortus, I was on the webjet website and
I could see that there was pretty much nothing happening
likewise out of Adelaide on Saturday, pretty much every flight
was full. Now, in my mind, my very simple mind,
our plane was there at ten pm Friday night. Why
can't we just fly out on that plane on six
acm on Saturday. That plane was never supposed to be
in Adelaide. It's there, Why can't we just fly on it? Anyway?
Not how it works like that, And so yeah, despite
my best efforts, despite for a fleeting moment, considering the
fourteen hour drive, you didn't Adelaide to Peris. Well, you
know what, I get to the hotel. It started at
the Great Holiday Inn and looked across from the Holiday
Inn and there's the Hurts Rental car company, and I thought,
maybe this is meant to be it Hurts is a
major a twenty percent discount. But no, that would have
been a silly thing to do. And so yep, so
I ended up watching it live and not so loud
at the Adelaide casino. They've had a very imp you.
Speaker 3: Went to the casino. We just went to the old
Pup down there.
Speaker 2: A very impressive sports bar right in the casino, so
big green, and we got to see the boys.
Speaker 3: Were you worried you might not be able to find
a venue because obviously South Australia is an AFL town,
that you might not find a venue that would have
the ruguy league one look.
Speaker 2: To be honest with you, I was. I was pretty
confident that, yeah, that I'd be able to find myself somewhere,
even if it meant, you know, the unfortunate reality of
no sound, which was the case.
Speaker 3: And was there anyone else watching the game with you, Troy,
because obviously, again AFL town, did they really care about
rugby league once the Rams got pulled out of there?
Sure they gave up yep.
Speaker 2: So Rebecca from our sales team, she was there as well.
She ventured off to a winery during the during the
day and then then came to watch the game. And
one other Panthers fan there in a polo who arrived.
Speaker 3: Just he was on his own.
Speaker 2: I think he was with his wife. Okay, so he's
trade his wife along. So I don't know what their
story was. To be honest, you know, we didn't really stuck.
Speaker 3: They might have got as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe just a welcome nod might have been an
Adelaide regular.
Speaker 3: Did you wear any Panthers gear T.
Speaker 2: Shirt, Pans T shirt premier shirt from one of the
many premierships.
Speaker 3: Ninety one yep, so yep.
Speaker 2: But look, yeah it's good to cheer on the boys.
Everyone else was there cheering on some AFL games.
Speaker 3: Now, what lengths? Like you said you joked that you
would have driven fourteen hours or you would have found
another flight to maybe another city and made your way there.
What lengths would you have gone to had this not
have been around four clash against the Eels at combat,
But if this was a prelim or a grand final,
and shit like I'm going to miss I'm going to
miss this, yeah because I don't have a flight. What
would what what game or what would it have taken.
Speaker 2: For you to Yeah, look, maybe go some drastic if
we're talking prelim, so prelims the cutoff.
Speaker 3: But it was just a week one of the finals
home final.
Speaker 2: Ah yeah, you know what to be honestly, there if
we're talking finals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, on there, you're there, on there, no matter how,
no matter what means, you would have got there.
Speaker 2: I would have jumped in the in the car and
I would have got there. And look, there was another
path for me to get to Sydney that day. In fact,
this is probably what I would have done, and that
was catching a flight at ten am out of Adelaid
to Brisbane, of all places, and then catching a one
pm flight out of Brisbane to Sydney. And I think
I would have landed in Sydney at three o'clock or
something with time differences and all that sort of stuff,
and maybe would have made it. But it was just
too wisky because you know it of a delay somewhere whatever.
But look, you know what, it was interesting because I
think I spoke to you about last week or the
week before about how going to Combank feels a bit.
Speaker 3: It's a bit of a bit of task a task
this year.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna be honest. As much as I wanted
to be at the game, it wasn't like I was devastated,
because I feel like I would have been devastated if
I'd missed Penrith Penrith game. You a Penrith home game.
They're the things I don't want to miss. Missing this
at Combank like, it's disappointing, but I've got over it
pretty Qoch.
Speaker 3: And what about your buddies. You would have to break
in the news to them at some point did you
tell them on the Friday Saturday when watching.
Speaker 2: Them, they were hearing it all live unfold on the
Friday night canceled, and I think they were probably surprised
I didn't jump in the car and were there, to
be honest, But yeah, they It was funny because all
day they were trying to organize how we're going to
get to.
Speaker 3: This game because they rely on you, do they Hell, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 2: Normally chief organized. But they were trying to work it
all out in the chat. And I was at the conference,
so I wasn't really paying attention because there were six
or going to be six or seven of us, and
suddenly I dropped off. And that was probably a win
for them because it meant there was only five I
think that was here in the car.
Speaker 3: So they just going to paramount of folks. How how
difficult is it to get there? It just seems like
we're going to a buddy country.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, because I think that you know, we've
reached a decision about going a fair bit earlier to
enjoy some some pre drinks, right, and and so no
one wanted to drive, and then the train got brought
up and then there was a theory of about a bus,
the Panther bus. No, no, this is just a regular
bus to not.
Speaker 3: A not a okay you're talking about like, okay, shuttle wise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because she could get you know, shuttle buses depending
on the event, are actually you know reasonable. You know,
you could probably end up if you've got seven or
eight people, maybe thirty forty bucks each, you know, so
round trip, which you know, it's obviously cheap, and it
catch the train, but then you've got the comfort and
the security of the bus. But it wasn't to be.
And but look, the pan has had a great win.
It was a great performance. Obviously, I've watched it in
full and watched all the highlights back and whatever else.
But disappointing not to be there. But I will be
there on Friday night. I'm not going. I'm not going
anywhere in the state.
Speaker 3: Two Panthers home games this year, trying. We both missed them. Yes,
and our colleague Emily has been to both of them.
She might be the true fan this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe maybe, Yeah, of course he went to Bathist. Now,
thank you to Lucy who's given me this so I'm right,
believe it or not. What happened in the two thousand
and four season. There was some upgrades to Penrith, which
meant that the Panthers went on the road, so weirdly enough,
I don't know how this worked out. So they played
a home game to kick off the two thousand and
four season after winning the comp against Newcastle at Penrith.
Now this is on the official NRL website. I want
to dispute that, I actually don't think that happened game game. Yeah, anyway,
we'll find out. We'll get blue seat back onto it,
because that doesn't make sense because the whole point was
that the stadium wasn't ready. I remember this. So then
we went on the road, we played Camber and Canberra
the Warriors, and then in round four Friday, the second
of April, Penrith moved their home game to Sydney Olympic
Park to the stadium the course stadium really. Penrith won
twenty two points to six in what was the Grand
Final rematch in front of a crowd of twenty five
thousand and eight two which make it that biggest crowd
crowd part unless you want account magic round and all
of that. But yeah, so what there was something about
you know, an upgrade or some construction or something. I yeah,
as I said, I have some slight doubt about that
Newcastle game. That's interesting.
Speaker 3: So what you're on errol dot com?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got errol dot com and now confirming that Yes,
Penrith Newcastle Friday the March.
Speaker 3: But I don't know if it was Can you checked
Rugby League Project.
Speaker 2: I'm going to check that because I'm not convinced. I'm
not convinced that was the case. Yeah, Panas was great game.
I don't know what it says about paramatter. Look, there's
just nowhere near Penrith at the moment.
Speaker 3: Were you concerned with the twenty points or whatever Penrith leaked?
Speaker 2: Not really, because I mean we obviously rested some players.
Speaker 3: You know, that's the rest a few players. What's going
on there with is not playing four games anymore?
Speaker 2: No, No, And I think that's just Look if he
was interviewed post the Batist game, yep, and he certainly
said that was a deliberate plan and it's basically just
game management and the game niggling injury. Apparently he was
always got niggly injury. When does Brian to Oh not
have a niggling injury. That's true, So I think there's
too much to be concerned about there. In fact, it's
probably a great thing that but the Panthers canst.
Speaker 3: Still Isaac Tago, he still wasn't able to get on
the field yet for his hundredth games.
Speaker 2: Still not there, which we're still waiting for this hundredth game.
And look you I'm told Regular League Project is also
saying that game was on. So the only other thing
I can suggest and imagine how outraged we would have
been about this, is that actually I'm mixing things up,
and it wasn't as a result of a stadium upgrade,
and we just moved the Grand Final rematch there trying
to get a big a crowd.
Speaker 3: Did they play an the other games and that was the.
Speaker 2: Only one they had to play there, So that's why
I was My theory was that, yeah, we had we
got stacked with away games plus that home game against
the Roosters, and because this the work had already happened
at the back end, you know, the off season, that
it was going to be ready basically by April and was.
But the fact that that game is played.
Speaker 3: That first game was still first game was played.
Speaker 2: Has confused me. So maybe a Panther fan of email.
It's a podcast at Western Weekend dot com. Do au
and clear up that situation.
Speaker 3: You don't remember going to that game?
Speaker 2: I do not. I definitely remember the Roosters game. You
remember going to remember going to Home Bush because I
remember Scott McCrae to like, I think, I'm trying to think,
but Scott McCrae performed a new rendition of the Australian
National anthem which was panther themed. We're playing the Roosters
who we've just been in the final, and so I
still remember it. I might actually, Scott McCrae, you might remember,
I'll ask you now, all right, that is it. We've
got the Easter eggs here too. It's next to Cabri
sponsored by Cabri today. It's an Easter because it is
east of this week. Yes, remember remember that? And then
in fact, my daughter said to me, I was talking
to her about Easter chocolate last night. Yes, and she
does go to a Christian school.
Speaker 3: Yes, of course.
Speaker 2: She just reminded me that Easter is not just about chocolate.
Speaker 3: Oh that's good, that's well over there.
Speaker 2: Well all right, now you know what happened on Sunday, Nathan.
I was obviously got back to Sydney finally and I
had a lot of stuff to do. It to know
the lawn, I had to do some bits and pieces.
So I put the headphones in and I actually listened
to the Canberra Cronulla game fully on the radio, probably
the first game I have listened to minute one to
eighty on the radio in ten years.
Speaker 3: Through you through your phone? Would you have a little little.
Speaker 2: Through my phone through the app? And I listened to
Andrew Moore, John No, No, Andrew ak. So I was
thought I'd listened to Andrew Moore. Luke Lewis and John
Gibbs called the game and I was actually really surprise
at how into it I became thanks to thanks to
the call team there. I actually really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: Just use your imagination as to what was happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know, running left to right in your
radio dial. So I yeah, because it's been a long
died a putty on the radio all the time, but
it's been a long time. So my question to you
and to our listeners, do you still listen to footy
on the radio at all? Because even if you're in
the car. These days, you're like, well, we get score
updates you've got do you really listen to it? Do
you really flick it on? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look I'm like you try going up. Like I
didn't have Foxtel or anything like that or Optus Vision.
So if you did want to listen to a game,
or a Panthers game for that matter, you would you
would have to listen to the radio to follow along.
And you know that's what that's what we did twenty
years ago or twenty five years ago. It was it
was very much either to GB or you know, Triple
M used to have Monday Night football. So I was
very glued into the radar. These days, not probably not
so much because you know, there's foot is so available
on on streamers or Foxtel or Channel nine, and so
I'm probably not listening to as much. But yes, if
I am out, if we are driving somewhere on a
Friday night to get some dinner or often have Triple
M on listening to a game, or on a Thursday
or during the weekend, ye yes, not full games like
you do, Troy, So obviously just you know we're heading
out somewhere and you know want to put something on
then yes I do, but yeah, not like we did
when we all kids, when that was pretty much your
only option if you didn't have Foxtel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I just wonder how many people like you
when you think about it. Now, there's actually more radio
stations broadcasting Rugby League, yeah than potentially at any other
to CN do it as well, because you've got SCN, ABC,
Triple M, and two GB all calling games sometimes the
same games. I know there's different rights for like I
think on Sunday, once we get into normality from this Sunday,
I think Triple M have the two o'clock game and
two GB at the four o'clock game, ABC can call both.
SCN I know has the Friday six o'clock game, So
there's different rules or whatever. But even from the radio
rights perspective, and are they paying much? Are these stations
paying much to broadcast the game? Like you'd almost beat
the point of saying the NFL should be paying them,
Like in the sense that you know there's not a lot,
I'm sure there's not a lot to be made commercially.
Maybe the Continuous Call Team because that has a long
history and a million sponsors. That sort of been renewed
along the way, but it's very expensive, particularly the ABC,
like they still go to most games, Yeah, the ABC
where some of the others still call something from Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, look, I think a lot of people do. I mean,
look at how many cars are on the road during
the weekends. You'd imagine that a lot of them probably
did rub the footy going on. And then there there's
some of those old school people that will watch the
game on TV but have the sound muted and have
the radio call in the background too.
Speaker 2: It's interesting you say that because the ABC was promoting
this as well. I think pretty much all of the
stations now have a feature in their apps that sync
up the commentary with the vision on the TV. Because
the issue was always before that the radio commentary was behind,
behind because they're on delay or ahead. Just the internet
into anything with the Internet, it's always just even if
you were listening on a transis stor somewhere somewhere is
on delay basically, so they never matched up. So now
you press this little button and they all call it
something different. Se n call it, you know, S and
sync or something. And you know, I can't remember what
Andrew Moore was calling it, but just promoting it the
other day. So yeah, you press it and it sinks
it up. So it's good to you know that if
you want to listen to Andrew Moore call the game
instead of whoever's calling it on Fox or nine, then
you can do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I didn't know that. That's that's really good
technology because I think that's that that stopped a lot
of people from doing that. And you can do that
at the games too, right.
Speaker 2: Like stadium ape stadium app So I think sn in
particular had that, So I think that's.
Speaker 3: A fantastic feature. I've never utilized it, but I love
to just sit there and watch the game and have
the commentary I used to I used to listen to
the years.
Speaker 2: I never transistor radio. Did you do what?
Speaker 3: We had phones though we had it out for front
to hear we had.
Speaker 2: You listen to the radio podcast that we're weekend at commode.
You let us know if you still listen to the
footy on the radio, and who do you listen to?
Might have a prize.
Speaker 3: Triple M for me. I must admit, back in the
day was continuous call. But I've definitely moved on to
triple M.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I who would I listen to by choice? Well,
Triple M. I probably engaged with more of their their
highlights that they put up on socialism whatever, but actually
listening to the game, and I know I'm you know,
half on about this. When it comes to TV as well,
I will favor the broadcast who I know is there,
and that's how I'll ended up on the ABC because
I feel that if you are my eyes and ears,
I don't want to have you calling it off the TV.
Speaker 3: It's a bit lazy, isn't it very lazy?
Speaker 2: And I get that it's expensive, but like two GB
for example, not even in camera.
Speaker 3: Say it's expensive, but that's what they were doing for decades.
You never had that technology from calling from this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they were doing this back in the day,
but now they've yeah, they've stopped doing that now.
Speaker 2: Just before we tell you about the great people at
Pena City, a motive, Lucy's handed me this. This is
a city.
Speaker 3: We barely see her in the office, but here she is.
Speaker 2: Sitting what herold story from February seven, two thousand and four,
just trying to see if I can find the journal
because no, no journal on it. And look I was
incorrect but correct. I was correct about the game being
at a core, but it had nothing to do with.
Speaker 3: Staying upgrade.
Speaker 2: Stadium upgrade and we would have been outraged about the
imagine this from twenty one to twenty twenty two. Penronce
has agreed to move it's Round four NRL home match
against two thousand and three Grand Final Opponent's City Roosters
to Telstra Stadium. The Panthers, who are currently in England
preparing for the World Club Challenge against Bradford, will take
on the Roosters in a Grand Final rematch at the
Olympic Stadium on April two. Panthers marketing manager Max cowan
And said the club would gain a win fort of
at least sixty thousand dollars by shifting the game from
Penrith to homebush. He said last year's Grand Final was
one of the most talked about in years. We believe
there are a lot of fans out there, not just
Panthers and Rooster supporters, who would love to see a replay.
It's an opportunity to draw a big crowd that we
can fit into Penrith Stadium. There is obvious economic benefits
and it could prove to everyone what we could do
with a bigger, better stadium at Penrith. Oh, the season
ticket holders will be able to attend the game for
no additional cost and will be entitled to free trains
to and from the stadium. Now, it only ended up
with twenty five thousands of.
Speaker 3: Backfight on a max over there. It's only three thousand
extra that they could have squeezed into Penoth Park.
Speaker 2: Yep. So there you go. So they may call to movement.
So imagine if we did that in twenty twenty one,
we win the comp, go into twenty twenty two and
we say smooth that to Telstra.
Speaker 3: Oh that's insane. It just shows you how times have changed,
hasn't it, especially for Penrith. I mean, other clubs still
take big games away, but Penrith, you know, they're very
solid in playing games here.
Speaker 2: And certainly people have said to me too that getting
the new stadium, whilst it's only a slight capacity increase,
does remove the temptation at the NRL to ever say hey,
we think you should move next game. And certainly I'm
happy to say that. Anthony Francis you might remember him,
he was a market manager. He was a marketing manager
at Panas, probably about six or seven years ago. Now.
He was behind the famous panther at cat suit that
they had for a few years.
Speaker 3: Memorable.
Speaker 2: So when I say six or seven, I think it
was actually.
Speaker 3: More like it's probably ten.
Speaker 2: Ye, well for years something now he said to me,
he said like, oh, no, I think we should be
moving games. We should be moving games to homebush and
all of that.
Speaker 3: He was all for that.
Speaker 2: So corporate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he wasn't a real panther, Yeah he was. He
was pretty focused and just one of the money.
Speaker 2: And his theory was when you're playing a Battle of
the West, it which your one chance to get thirty thousand,
well we should move it and take the money. So
you know, it only takes one marketing whiz like that
to get into a board's ear to then go yeah,
that's not a bad idea. So the new stadium will
at least, you know, get rid of that for a while. Good. Now,
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one great Western Highway, Kingswood and take the first step
towards driving smarter. Now. The big news out of the Panthers,
of course, in that game the other night was the
suspension of Mitch Kenny. Now, I guess Panthers in the
end just thought, look, there's no sense go to the
judiciary over this one, even though Ivan clear is pretty
critical of even the sin binning, yeah, let alone the suspension.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it was probably the right call in the end,
because had they tried to fight Mitch Kenny, Mitch Kenny's suspension,
I guess here and lost and Mitch should have been
probably missing was at two games or he was facing
two games. So look, it's smart idea, just give him
a rest for this week. There was was pretty clear cut.
You can't really get out of those hip drop Yeah, tackles,
I guess you could say so. But yeah, it would
have been interesting had there been a situation similar to
Nathan's from the start of the year, whether Ivan would
have stepped in again for his player or you know
what I mean, like did he just do that for
his son or would he have gone in there and
fought for someone else?
Speaker 2: Even though we know, like yes, you're not going to
be a hip drop, we still connfused. I think about
what isn't what isn't a hip drop?
Speaker 3: It depends if they injured them as well. That usually
comes with a price as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so young he's out for eight weeks, eight weeks,
so like it's do we consider that because he's on
even spent it for a week, So like, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know where this But then there was another hip drop
over the weekend that that person didn't get any suspension.
Speaker 2: So honestly, I don't know if even the people making
the decisions exactly know what a hip drop is.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think any of us do. Like we
think we know, and we see some pretty pretty nasty ones.
But something what Mitch did the other day that yeah,
it didn't look like a classic hip drop sort of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very interesting. Well, which Kenny is suspended so he
won't be playing this week. I actually saw Mitch Kenny.
I folwed it into the mass Panther, Yeah, and texted
him straight away on the text line is the text
line for mass Panther. By the way, he was at
Percy Plunkett yesterday and he was chatting to Scott Soorrens
and it looked like he was trying to explain the
tackle to Scott Soorrens.
Speaker 3: Oh really were they?
Speaker 2: Were?
Speaker 3: They dining in.
Speaker 2: At the takeaway window. Takeaway window there, so we're just
waiting for their coffee and and Mitch looked like he
was giving a play by play Scott Soorrens on how
it went down. That's what I witnessed there. You go
in and you should grab the text line number two
and a text the mass Panther if you get any news,
any news, all right now, last week we finished up
the Great Game. Of course the price is right you.
Of of course one a Panthers pink scarf. I did now.
Speaker 3: I was waiting for it, Troy.
Speaker 2: This is the thing. I went to purchase it the
other day. Sold out of pink scarves on that particular day.
They say they're coming in this week.
Speaker 3: Should be there now, so you should be able to
get one in the flesh at the Panther still.
Speaker 2: So I reckon I'll be able to get one, maybe
even a comment stadium this Friday night to you on
on Good Friday.
Speaker 3: We'll get a photo out of the stadium that's wearing it.
Speaker 2: So we'll do that. But we've got a new game, Nathan,
and and this is called Panthers Theme Song Survivor. I
put a lot of thought into that name.
Speaker 3: And we've got a theme song, and we've got we've
got the music, intrue music, an applause, something like.
Speaker 2: That, beautiful, beautiful to be here. Now, what we're doing
with this is there's a lot of been a lot
of Panthers songs over the years. We all know go
the Mighty Panthers. A lot of people remember Panther Power.
We all, you know, there's been actually more than you think,
more than you think, and I kill us archive of
Panthers songs from over the years, including some that I reckon.
You know people have thought have been forgotten about. Well,
I've got them.
Speaker 3: How have you managed to track down because they're not
on on iTunes or Spotify?
Speaker 2: No they're not. Well I've got them.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: I actually figured out you can put Go the Mighty
Panthers on your own Spotify. You can, however, you you
say the song locally, say on your phone, but then
you can add it to your playlist, right, okay, So
it's just that you can't share it with somebody.
Speaker 3: You've got to get the MP three somehow.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, you still have to load the MP three
so you normally do it. You can. I did it
from my desktop computer, right, So you can't do it.
But obviously you can't share it with anyone or put
it up yourself, but you can put it in your
own thing. Good to know. So what we're doing each
week with Panthers theme song Survivor is I'm going to
play you the probably the opening minute or so of
two songs, yep, and you are going to decide who
goes through to the finals, and.
Speaker 3: I eliminate one.
Speaker 2: One is eliminated, okay, is completely destroyed, finished, torn up,
shredded as a Panthers theme song.
Speaker 3: Excellent.
Speaker 2: The other is going through go through to the next round.
So where we are going to start, Nathan. We're going
to get all the way back, firstly to nineteen sixty
seven and the original Penrith Panthers theme song. Get ready
for the instrumental.
Speaker 3: He there is a banjo.
Speaker 2: It was like ben Hillbilly.
Speaker 3: It certainly does.
Speaker 2: So you get the vibe. You get the vibe. Yep,
there's sixty seven. Will give it a before of a
run here, Yeah, lots of the lyrics there, it is
so there it is. That's the nineteen sixty seven song.
Now that was the AFL. We still had that song.
Speaker 3: That's what it does, have a very AFL like sound.
Speaker 2: And they stick with the traditions in the AFL. Well,
that's up against Nathan a song that was to come
out something like thirty years later in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 5: Panther fans.
Speaker 2: Clap your hands. Panther fans clap your hand. It's not
much to it, is it. Yeah, pumped up a crowd
in ninety seven, That's.
Speaker 5: What I mean.
Speaker 3: The commentary in there.
Speaker 4: Everything people love, pan red, gather around Ridney Oh. I
came to get down and the fans rule and the
West Super Rugby League. We are the best me on
the mic and fans and the stands. Together we can win.
So cheer and clap your hands. Players on the field, all.
Speaker 2: Men are steals. Give them the power and good is
how they feel.
Speaker 4: And every position crush the oppositions, the final decision to
win as our mission east side west side, the family
here jungles, the place and field of thrill, kick.
Speaker 2: Pass of run.
Speaker 4: All can have fun on a serious snow falls weird
number one atmosphere, excitement out on the ground.
Speaker 2: I'm a panther for my headiest pend Tanne. It is
also Rodney I remember it well in nineteen ninety seven.
So Nathan, you are the soul Judd Okay list. Now,
once we get into the finals, we may let some
of our audience members decide, but that's up to you.
Is it the tradition of sixty seven or is it
the Rodney Oh nineteen ninety seven Who are You? Who
are you gonna go with?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: Both very very catchy songs, very good songs. I mean,
I must admit, until you just played it now, i'd
never heard of that nineteen sixty seven version before. But
extremely catchy, very very afl like. Remember, Yeah, it reminds
me of singers from back in those days. That's how
they would sing Christmas carols or whatever. That's that had
that quintessential sound from the sixties. And love the banjo,
Love the Country and the rodney O one. Of course,
Super League season ninety seven. I remember actually going to
Panthers games that year. That's probably like a really really
vivid memory in my mind. Nathan was ten years old.
Super League was just this shiny new thing. I had
no idea about the politics or anything like that behind it.
But remember Rodneo being our ground and that's it was
just for that year. Troy and then came in ninety eight. Yeah, yep,
But yeah, if I have to pick out of the two,
I'd probably have to go with nineteen ninety seven, Troy
or Rodneo.
Speaker 2: You're going to put nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 3: I just think that song had it or they had
a great rap. You had some commentary in the background,
you had the panther growl, It had a bit it
might be controversial.
Speaker 2: So into the finals goes this shit.
Speaker 6: Brilliant click at that, all these iconic pendrith sounds from
the days.
Speaker 2: In there, charge.
Speaker 3: The charge and let the charge go. There used to
be someone that would play it so rid of that.
Speaker 2: There is again that's a good run in this. Alright,
Well there you go, so straight into the finals nineteen
ninety seven. Next week we'll have another two songs to
go against it.
Speaker 3: It sounds like you're not happy with that choice, Troy.
Speaker 2: Look I would have gone sixty seven. Yep. However, I
actually do have a little slight passion. Ninety seven song
has actually got a video clip that goes with or
it was on YouTube. Find that on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Okay, I guess it's just something that I actually heard
myself Ammonius at the football since seven on one. While
it was very catching and cool, I just you know,
it didn't really resonate with me.
Speaker 2: That's all all right? Well nineteen ninety seven Rodney, Oh,
he'd be happy to know he's still is he still
doing the Sidney Kings? You're still doing it? Ah? He
did it for many, many years after the pin.
Speaker 3: I must have been how many to a Sydney Kings
game in many years? But he was the last time
I was there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's still he was still around on radio
and whatever else. I actually contacted him, I think for
the maybe the farewell Pendrith Park story last year.
Speaker 3: And did he get back to him?
Speaker 2: Well, so I wrote in this big, long message and
I just said, look, Rodney loved to speak to you.
You know, this is what we're doing. You know you
still remember it's pretty iconic for that one year. And
he wrote back, Yes, sir, that's it. So I wrote
back and said, so I grabbed your number or whatever
else and that was it. So yes, So it was
all I got out of you.
Speaker 3: So you go, maybe that's all he wanted to say.
Speaker 2: That was all right, Well that's that's through. So ninety
seventy is through to the finals.
Speaker 3: So when we get to the finals, I'll be so
this is through to the end, that this could win
it at some point.
Speaker 2: Well no, I think then, well there'll be a semi
final series. Okay. So I've got plenty of songs, you do,
I've got plenty of songs. Some that you wouldn't think about. Wow,
I can't remember.
Speaker 3: I imagine going to the Mighty Panthers is one, of.
Speaker 2: Course, of course, And look, I probably won't put lucks,
like when you're doing the World Cup, you know you're
going to make sure you draw. Probably doesn't have panther
power versus going the Mighty Panthers. Of course, they're pretty iconic.
And look, they're obviously the favorites to be in the
super Bowl. But we'll see, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3: You might Rod could win the whole thing, he could
hear the whole thing. We should get him on the show.
If he does, We're going to.
Speaker 2: Lead more guests. We need more guests on the show.
Speaker 3: We've got plenty of plenty of studio space.
Speaker 2: We do, yeah, just not enough microphones. I'm working on that.
I'm working on that. Look, if you've been on the
sixty nine episode journey on this podcast, then you've been
on the audio journey with us. When oh Mi, Mike's
sound like I was under the ocean in a submarine somewhere,
and you know, we've gone through a We.
Speaker 3: Have like a Mike graveyard behind us, all the old
mics we used to use.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, you see what I was actually talking to
someone at the conference I mentioned earlier about podcasts. Oh yeah,
he was saying about, you know, he does a true
crime podcast in his area and I must have a
lot of crime in his area, and he was saying
how he records it on his phone and people love
that that sort of out in the wilderness kind of
on the road vibe. And I listened to most of
Headley Thomas's podcast at the Australia just finished his podcast
Sick to Death, which is a great podcast promoting news
court there, but great podcast Sick to Death, and Headley
does quite a lot of that where he'll he's happy
to record a conversation randomly on his phone or in
the car after he's been in an interview, and it
actually comes across as raw. But as I was explaining
to this guy, like we obviously used to record this podcast,
or not this podcast, but our podcast in a professional
radio studio. Yes, that was above us. And so once
you've had professional radio sound quality, you can't crave that.
So you've either got to be like in a professional
studio or literally sitting at the construction side of Penra Stadium.
If you're in the middle. You know, that's when you're
struggling to find exactly what you want. Where we could
do it live from Pena Stadium and the big trucks
in the background and whatever, and it feel raw. Maybe
we should do that.
Speaker 3: I reckon we should take it on the road. You're
out on the proper hill or not. Yeah, we could
do it and next door with Hog's breadth is or
something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they couldn't stop me.
Speaker 3: It's actually not a bad idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we do a line, we could do a tour.
We could do a lap, yeah, lap of the construction side.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're walking past people love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Great, everyone out there who's been on this audio
journey's going great. Now they're going out on the road
with a mobile microphone. All right, Well that's the final word.
Who are you tipping and why on Friday?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm tipping Penrith. I'm hoping they can still keep
up with their their strong start to the year. And
you know, I know we're a little bit worried at
the start of the show, Troy that you know it
could be a close game, but you know this might
be a different Melbourne side this year that you know
we're not used to, so potentially it could be another
big win for Penrith. So that's what I'm tipping.
Speaker 2: All right, I've got Penrith by ten. I think they
will get home on Friday night. But it wouldn't surprise
me if it is.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't be bad if this first game that we go
to Troy of the year and that's when the streak ends.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that wouldn't surprise me. Very likely. I'm going
to go. I'll be going to the Bulldogs game the
next week.
Speaker 3: Too at the Course stadiums Okay, excellent.
Speaker 2: Hopefully I don't see two back to back losses and
we get all right. Well that's it. Preteni's running high
this week. New episodes out every week. Visit Western Weekend
dot com today you follow us on all the socials.
Check out our print edition, which is out every Thursday,
of course, and download the app from the Apple App
Store or the Google Play Store. I'm Troy Odds Nathan,
thanks for joining us. Thanks Troy and Nathan. You of
course will be interviewing players and all of that in
Extra Time this week, so absolutely check out their latest
edition of Extra Time. Thanks to Penrith City Automotive for
their sponsorship. Will see you next time on tensions running high.
Got the pandas, Clap.
Speaker 5: Your hands, Panthers, Clap your hands, panther, clap your hands.
Speaker 2: Well up,