Something in the (Mountain) Water:

This week, the Penrith Panthers are on the verge of history as they chase their fourth consecutive NRL premiership, facing the formidable Melbourne Storm. Having already secured titles in 2021, 2022, and 2023, Penrith is poised to solidify their dynasty with five Grand Final appearances in the last five years—an unparalleled feat in modern rugby league.? What makes this achievement even more impressive is their ability to maintain success under the NRL’s hard salary cap, designed to prevent teams from stockpiling star players. Despite losing key talents like Apisai Koroisau, Matt Burton, Spencer Leniu, and Stephen Crichton, Penrith continues to thrive by seamlessly integrating fresh, young talent from their pathways program.

Last year’s NRL Grand Final featured a powerful visual: a graphic showing the junior clubs of every player. What stood out to me as the Penrith Panthers took the field is that they all seemed to come from a similar geographical area. Remarkably, 12 out of the 13 starting players made their NRL debuts with the Penrith Panthers, showcasing the club's strong commitment to their homegrown strategy.? Indeed, the reason for this impressive statistic can be traced back to 2013 where the club’s powerbrokers had a vision to ‘build from within’ following a series of lean years in the professional space.? The club’s leadership committed to long-term investment in their pathways system, focusing on homegrown talent while also scouting untapped regional players overlooked by competitors. This strategy has since paid off, with the Panthers now reaping the rewards of that foresight.

Interestingly, it is not only Penrith that is benefiting from this talent hotspot but rather the wider NRL landscape.? In 2023, 8.2% of all NRL contracted players played their junior rugby league at one of the 24 clubs that service the Penrith area comprising of 8659 registered players.? For comparison of statistics only, the Brisbane metropolis furnishes the NRL with an equivalent number of players as a percentage (8.4%) but does that from double the player base (16,447) so it would be interesting to investigate the possible reasons for this.? As such, in addition to the development programs that the Panthers offer the area itself is churning out high quality players before they even get to these pathway teams shaping the area as a talent hotspot.

This notion of talent hotbeds is not a unique phenomenon in sport.? For example, following through on his hunch that a disproportionate number of players competing in the English Premier League hail from a small area within South London, Callum Murray committed himself to investigating this further.? Upon closer inspection it was found that 1 in 6 (17%) of all English born players come from a 10-mile area of South London colloquially called the “Golden Square”.? The borough of Croydon alone which contains a modest 0.6% of the UK’s population supplies the EPL with 5% of their players.? The fruits of Callum’s unbridled curiosity culminated in his outstanding book entitled “Something in the Water” which thoughtfully articulates how the socio-cultural environment specific to areas of South London provide unique opportunities for its inhabitants to develop creative skills which is changing the face of English soccer.? Similarly, across the English Channel, 35% of the French squad that reigned supreme in the 2018 Football World Cup emerged from a small pocket of suburban Paris where the socio-cultural constraints of freedom, showmanship, and ultra-competitiveness were applied to the playing of ‘concrete football’ (ballon sur bitumen) where an array of breath-taking skills were cultivated.?

Therefore, given that we have also established that the Penrith area is producing a disproportionate amount of NRL players relative to the rugby league playing population it would be interesting to find out what is causing this anomaly.? The focus on the development of individual players and the pathway teams that they represent certainly operates as a great finishing school and shows how sustained success can be achieved in a competition that is designed to be on an even playing field.? But what is driving the initial talent development in the Penrith area? What is going on there that is causing an over representation of players on NRL rosters?? Are there some powerful socio-cultural forces at play like that of the boroughs of South London and the banlieues of Paris? or.... is there simply “Something in the (Mountain) Water”?