Panthers captain Isaah Yeo’s revealed he told Sunia Turuva to not take the Penrith’s success for granted with the winger looking at his options from rival clubs. The Panthers have seen a number of their stars leave in recent years – seeking big contracts elsewhere – having sustained NRL success.
Since 2020, 26 players have left the Panthers and signed with a rival club. However, only three have played finals footy. While most of the 26 players joined struggling clubs with space in the salary cap, success for most has been hard to come by outside of Penrith.
Kurt Capewell, Jack Hetherington and Paul Momirovski are the only three to have featured in finals footy since their move. Seven of the 26 are currently playing in their first club since leaving Panthers. However the other 19 players who have yet to feature in finals footy since leaving represents a less than 16 per cent chance of playing in the finals.
The winger is off contract at the end of the season and Turuva has been linked to the Dragons after Zac Lomax’s departure after 2024 freeing up salary cap space. Although Edwards has urged Turuva to think about the chances of success at rival clubs, before leaving for more money.
“A lot of these boys have come in and had success off the bounce,” he told AAP at the NRL’s launch of the Telstra Country Footy Series. “My first year I played about 10 games and we made a prelim (in 2014), then the year after we were in the wooden spoon play-off game.
“It was us and the Knights, and whoever lost that game got the spoon. That’s certainly not fun. (Players) need to know how lucky we are at the moment and the position we’re in. If people want to go for opportunities or money, I totally understand that. It’s a big business.
