Hunting season opens on Friday and Yeo's Panthers are ready

At various stages during 2024 you’ll hear back-to-back-to-back premiers Penrith referred to as ‘the hunted’ as they look to fight off all 16 challengers and become the first team since the 60s to win four titles on the trot.

Having equalled the great Parramatta side of the early 80s with a three-peat, the Panthers now go in pursuit of the Immortals-stacked St George side that ruled the game for 11 seasons between 1956-66.

From last year’s runners-up Brisbane to perennial powerhouses the Roosters and Storm, rivals will come at the champions hard in 2024 in a bid to knock them off their pedestal, but any talk of being ‘the hunted’ is quickly batted away by co-captain Isaah Yeo.

“We don’t like to think of being the hunted because that means you’re sitting there waiting,” Yeo told pan66.com at the Telstra Premiership launch in Sydney.

“We want to attack everything, that has been a mindset for us. Regardless of what the other team is doing we want to go after them and that makes for good battles.

“That helps us out knowing we are getting every team’s best and that hardens us as well. You want to go after every game.

“We are not going to be sitting there as prey.”

Regardless of which players they have lost to other clubs since their reign began, or the very occasional games they have lost, the Panthers continue to set the standard by which all NRL sides are measured.

They go into the new season without champion centre Stephen Crichton, bench powerhouse Spencer Leniu and back-up playmaker Jack Cogger, but Yeo is adamant the structures they have put in place during the past five years will again serve them well.

“We have confidence in our ability and confidence in our training - we feel like we’re a group that trains really hard and that shows with how our game style is,” Yeo said.

When there’s a grind we feel like that’s where we excel as a group

Panthers co-captain Isaah Yeo

“It’s the nature of the NRL that we are going to lose some players but we have a lot of trust in the young boys coming through.

“You can’t replace ‘Critta’ [Crichton] like for like but someone will come in and do a wonderful job for us.

“There’s no real front-rower who does what Spencer does off the bench and the power he brings but we have someone waiting in the wings who will come in and do a great job in their own style.

“We just understand that we have to play to each other’s strengths and we need to be ready to go from the first game.”

When it comes to first-up challenges, they don’t come much tougher than the Melbourne Storm, who haven’t lost a Round 1 game since 2001.

The road trip to AAMI Park to launch their title defence kick starts an opening month of stern tests against the Eels, Broncos and Roosters.
“There’s a bit of an aura around the Storm’s Round 1 record,” Yeo said.

“They train extremely hard down there in Melbourne and I’d like to think we do the same at Penrith.

“It will be a really tough test for us, a great challenge.

“The intensity of the World Club Challenge was great preparation for us.

“I don’t think many teams get a game like that for their first game of the season – the intensity, a packed-out stadium.

“Physically and with our fitness I feel like it laid a fair foundation for us for the start of the season.

“It’s a new season, a new squad, the competition is going to be better so we understand we have to be better.

“Four in a row hasn’t happened in this era so it’s a big one, it’s something we’re really excited about.”