30-years of spirit behind Panther’s GF surge

Simmons was the Rolls Royce of Panthers skippers. He led by example and was captain of the club for eight seasons from 1983 until 1990.

Greg Alexander took over in 1991 and was the club’s first-ever premiership captain but hooker Simmons was the hero in his final premiership game in the 19-12 win over the Canberra Raiders, bagging two tries in the process.

Yeo and Simmons both hail from regional NSW and share the no-nonsense, roll the sleeves up style of captaincy.

Yeo, co-captain with Nathan Cleary, said the Simmons legacy remained an inspiration to the current squad.

“Royce spoke to me and Nathan at the start of the year and he was the ultimate ‘lead by example’ kind of a captain,” Yeo said.

“He doesn‘t like or seek too much attention which suits me too. He is incredibly honest and an incredibly good fella. I can see why he had so much success as a leader.

“I have a good relationship with Royce and I know how excited they were to win it in 1991. We are lucky to have some of those greats like Royce and Brandy [Greg Alexander] around the club. They have been incredible for us and hopefully we can do what they did.”

Simmons has been watching the Dally M lock of the year closely and said he had shone in his leadership role.

“Isaah doesn‘t seek the limelight but he likes to get in and train hard, work hard and do the best for the people around him. He cares for other people, ” Simmons said.

“Everything he does is leadership, whether it is making runs, doing tackles or getting an offload away. It is all leading from the front and taking pressure off other people. When the team is under pressure he‘s the one to take the tough run. He is virtually saying to the boys ’jump on the back of this’. That’s leadership.

“He has good pace for a forward and footwork which leads to a lot of metres, and he‘s added a pass to his game and that has taken a lot of pressure off his halves. Every week his tackle count is high and his missed tackles are very low. He’s got everything covered.”

The Panthers lost the 1990 decider before taking their second chance the following year, a path that the current team is also on after losing to the Storm in last year‘s grand final.

“At the time they probably felt as though they had to win one to lose one. It is not something you want to do, but that is the road we had to take after the loss last year.” Yeo said.

“It took me 150 games to get to my first grand final and now I am lucky enough to be playing my second one, but there is a lot of hard work ahead.”

Simmons said the 1991 team‘s path had lessons for today’s team

“I know how much it hurts when you lose a grand final so if you get the second chance you don‘t want to wait for a third because it might not ever come,” he said.

‘“Penrith have been blessed get a second chance.

“I just know Penrith have two fantastic skippers and they are a great combination. Both are a credit to our city. I will have my beanie on at home on Sunday and I‘ll be watching and cheering them on.”