No holidays How the Panthers stepped up after grand final pain

As he began picking up the pieces of a heartbreaking grand final loss to the Melbourne Storm last year, James Fisher-Harris elected to take out his frustrations on . . . the stairs.

A fanatical trainer at the best of times, the Penrith prop wasn’t in the mood for feeling sorry for himself while the Storm were busy celebrating another premiership. So he went outside and went to work, taking what he now considers to be the first steps back to the NRL decider.

Up he went, time and again, almost wearing a path down the middle as he attacked the incline with the same kind of venom he injects when he carries the ball for the Panthers.

“Fish has some stairs near his house and, a few days after the grand final, he was just running up them over and over again, taking his anger out from losing the GF,” remembers Penrith centre Stephen Crichton.

James Fisher-Harris has been on a mission this season.Credit:Getty Images

Once the stairs had been taught a lesson, Fisher-Harris was back in the team gym not even a week after the grand final had been run and won.

“Nah . . . not for me,” Fisher-Harris said. “No holidays.”

He wasn’t alone. One by one, or in small groups, the Panthers players returned voluntarily in the off-season to get some work in the bank for the return bout in 2021. There was no temptation to get away from it all or let the result eat away at their resolve.

“I just gave myself a week to let go of footy, but then I just went back and started training all over again and training hard to get back to this spot,” Crichton said.

“It just made us hungrier with the opportunity we had missed. We were just burning. I didn’t want to give myself a break to let go and probably get fat. I just wanted to get back there.

“Jarome Luai, Brian To’o, James Fisher-Harris and a few boys just kept wandering in and out. They were just doing extra gym sessions. It was good to see everyone there, it shows how hungry they were.

“Fish was one of the main ones in there every day, just pumping weights and working on his passing. That’s what makes him such a gun player.”

The Panthers have channelled the pain of last year’s loss into a return bout. Credit:Getty

There is something to be said about getting away from the game and having a mental refresh before returning for a typically gruelling pre-season. But Penrith are a young side, and Crichton and many of his teammates craved the feeling of a football in their hands.

“The feeling we had after that grand final, it was crazy,” said Luai, who was one of those leading the early charge back to the gym and the football field.

“It’s hard to keep us indoors anyway, us boys from the area like to get out and about. We always have a ball in our hands. Being one of the eldest of the Mountie [Mt Druitt] boys, I was just trying to keep everyone motivated. They’re humble, they want to work hard.

“It burned us last year. It was pretty cool to bury that quickly and get to work again. We knew we were young, we knew we would have more opportunities. We wanted to be ready for that. So here we are again and grateful for the opportunity. Let’s rewrite the script.”

For Luai, an off-season, especially after such a difficult defeat, seemed to provide nothing but a loose end. So a return to the park for him was simply a natural extension of his youth, when he was always the kid kicking the football around until it was dark.

“Even before last year, back when we were 17 and 18, we were always the last ones on the park. We grew up together, I grew up with Stephen’s older brother, so we were always at the fields, just imagining where we are now. We’ve been working hard for this since we were knee high.”

After being shocked in the first week of the finals by the Rabbitohs, Penrith have simply refused to lose against the Eels and the Storm in tight and physical contests.

Luai can see the seeds of those victories being planted almost a year ago, when the Panthers decided to put their head down, rather than their feet up, in pursuit of a shot at grand final redemption.

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