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Panthers fans are gearing up for today\u2019s NRL grand final, showing their support with sausages, life-size player cutouts, monumental murals and lucky undies.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Penrith\u2019s fourth consecutive grand final appearance, and the team is chasing a third straight premiership. If they succeed, they\u2019ll be the first club to win back-to-back-to-back grand finals since Parramatta in 1981-83.<\/p>\n
Fans are calling it \u201chistory three-peating\u201d. For those same fans, helping their team means rituals \u2013 and lots of them.<\/p>\n
Angela Harris has a specific game-day routine she believes contributes to Penrith\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
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Vanessa Harris and young fans Brody, 4, and three-year-olds Mila, Ashton, James and Alex colour in fan art at the Penrith Early Learning Centre. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Dean Sewell<\/cite><\/p>\n She has a specific skincare routine; lucky socks and undies; a playlist (along with banned game-day songs) and a custom Panthers bow for her hair.<\/p>\n \u201cI know it sounds intense, but it works,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She works at Penrith Early Learning Centre and the three- to five-year-olds are just as excited as her.<\/p>\n The centre is adorned with flags, and there\u2019s a 1.5-metre-tall cutout of Jarome Luai\u2019s head. The hallway is dotted with the children\u2019s fan art, while a game banner takes over a wall, extending from the roof to the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cOn game days, we finish up morning group by yelling \u2018Go Panthers\u2019 three times, and the boys win every time we do it,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n Panther-coloured snags have flown off the shelves of Scott Evans\u2019 East Blaxland Butchery.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Dean Sewell<\/cite><\/p>\n Some rituals are newer. For Blue Mountains butcher Scott Evans, it\u2019s his first year selling Panthers-themed sausages, and they have proved immensely popular. East Blaxland Butchery has sold more 100 kilograms of black, red and yellow-coloured sausages in the span of three days: roughly the weight of an NRL player (although not quite a front-rower).<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been pretty busy,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n The butchery sells trays of black sausages made with vegemite, beef and cheese; red ones, with lamb, beetroot and onion; yellow with chicken kiev, and green pork Toulouse sausages.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just the snags signalling the butchery\u2019s support: balloons and inflatable panthers also line the entrance. \u201cIt\u2019s all set up for the boys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Danielle McLoon\u2019s house is known for its \u201cPanthers Wall\u201d along the Great Western Highway in Warrimoo. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Dean Seawell<\/cite><\/p>\n Danielle McLoon owns the famous \u201cPanthers Wall\u201d along the Great Western Highway in Warrimoo, a nine-metre painted fence with matching festoon lights.<\/p>\n She first painted it in 2020 when her husband was away, in the year that started the Panthers\u2019 grand final run.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019d thought it would be a little panel, but it\u2019s the whole fence. I was fully committed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s now a local landmark. People toot and honk as they drive past it and others \u2013 even non-Panthers fans \u2013 comment on it.<\/p>\n Every year Pieta Rzepecki decorates her house with Panthers memorabilia, and this year she had some help from family friends Anthony and Erin Linderberg and their children Lottie, 5, and Lacey, 8.<\/span>Credit: <\/span> Dean Sewell<\/cite><\/p>\n For Pieta Rzepecki, Sunday is as much about the game as it is about the celebration.<\/p>\n Her friends Erin and Antony Linderberg and their children Lottie, 5, and Lacey, 8, have travelled from the Sunshine Coast to celebrate with her.<\/p>\n The pair is planning to party: they\u2019re driving in a 500-car convoy across Penrith on Sunday morning before jumping in a party bus to get to and from the club to the game.<\/p>\n Every grand final day has been more special than the last, Rzepecki said.\u201cLast year was special because it was the first since COVID, and this year could be historic.\u201d<\/p>\n As in previous years, she\u2019s decorated her house with four boxes worth of Panthers memorabilia.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s nice having something that puts a smile on people\u2019s faces,\u201d McLoon said.<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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