Isaah Yeo has admitted his disappointment that Penrith will skip the World Club Challenge, after the Panthers officially told the NRL they could not contest the only major trophy they are missing.
By defeating Melbourne in last Sunday’s grand final, the Panthers clinched both a historic fourth consecutive premiership and a date with the winner of the Super League decider between Wigan and Hull KR on Sunday (AEDT). But Penrith’s trip to Las Vegas for round one of the 2025 season has complicated matters, given the clash of premiers usually takes place in either England or Australia just before the NRL regular season begins.
The Panthers are planning for disruptions at the other end of their pre-season as well. At least 12 players will delay their mandated leave from the Panthers to participate in Samoa’s tour of England or the Pacific Championships. Privately, the Panthers felt their team went into the 2024 World Club Challenge underdone following last year’s Pacific Championships, and that was without a trip to Las Vegas thrown in.
Penrith expect their last lot of players to return from leave in early January, meaning the club will have barely six weeks of pre-season before flying out to face Cronulla at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Logistics would become even more difficult if Wigan won the Super League grand final as expected, given they are also due to participate in rugby league’s second Las Vegas foray.
A high-ranking Panthers official called the NRL on Wednesday morning to confirm the club’s position on not playing the World Club Challenge. The club is open to working with the NRL on a solution, but at this stage does not see a window in which the game can be played.
Co-captain Yeo felt it was a shame to miss the fixture, but understood the club’s predicament.
“You’d love to get it on, I just don’t know you could work it, to be fair,” he said at Wednesday’s official fan celebration for the Panthers’ grand final win. “Obviously as a group we’d love to because it’s something we’ve missed, sort of the only thing that’s missing on the resume.
“You’d love another opportunity to try and make amends for that. It’s just so hard with Vegas. If we weren’t doing Vegas I reckon we’d be a chance, but that just makes it a bit harder.”
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It means the World Club Challenge is set to elude the Panthers for another year, despite the side’s well-documented dominance of the NRL since 2020.
The fixture was cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic following the 2021 grand final, and in the two years that followed St Helens and Wigan each claimed tight wins over Penrith. Previous Panthers sides also lost the fixture following the 1991 and 2003 premiership triumphs.
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has previously expressed his excitement at taking part in the fixture, but the club is keen to prioritise player welfare and the pursuit of a fifth consecutive NRL premiership.
“They’re not robots, they can’t keep playing, and we’ve got to go to Vegas,” said Panthers group chief executive Bryan Fletcher. “The time span there and for health reasons of the players, we just cannot do that (the World Club Challenge).”
