The Penrith Panthers are the 2021 NRL premiers, beating South Sydney 14-12 in Brisbane on Sunday night.
Having lost to the Rabbitohs in the opening week of finals, the Panthers were forced to go the long road to the top, battling through tight tussles with Parramatta and Melbourne to make the decider.
Despite losing to Wayne Bennett’s side just three weeks ago, it was Penrith who dominated proceedings, playing the majority of the game in their attacking half.
Emerging Panthers centre Matt Burton opened the scoring with a try in the 17th minute, while Cody Walker would cross over for Souths at the 21-minute mark through an opportunistic line break.
After a tight battle for the following 45 minutes, Penrith winger Stephen Crichton intercepted an errant pass to skip to the try line giving his side a buffer they’d never look back from.
His try in the 67th minute was equalled by Rabbitohs winger Alex Johnston in the 75th minute, but Adam Reynolds was unable to make the conversion from the sideline to draw level.
The Panthers would hold that two-point lead for the final five minutes until the final buzzer rang out.
The victory for Penrith caps off a stellar two-year run winning 39 of 44 regular season games.
For South Sydney, the game marks an end to a brilliant finals run where they won straight through to the decider with wins against Penrith and Manly.
Coach Wayne Bennett, captain Adam Reynolds and centre Dane Gagai now depart the club as Jason Demetriou takes over in 2022.
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