My little piece of Panther Pride NRL fans show their support from Sydney

Before the pandemic, nothing would stop Annyta Adams from travelling to see her beloved Panthers.

Rain, hail or shine, you were guaranteed to find the 39-year-old at every home-and-away game, and she would even travel as far as New Zealand to watch her boys play.

Annyta Adams has been a Panthers fan since she was five.Credit:Kate Geraghty

But with COVID-19 wreaking havoc across the last two NRL seasons, Adams, from Jordan Springs, about 50 kilometres west of Sydney’s CBD, has had to get creative in showing her support for the team.

One of those ways is decorating her house from top to bottom in club colours and placing huge cardboard heads of the likes of Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai in her garden. Fans from all over Penrith stop to take photos.

“I deck out the house just to show my little piece of Panther Pride in the heartland of Penrith. We’re very proud folks out here,” she said.

“This has been such a difficult time, not only for myself but for many Panthers fans who live around Penrith.”

Adams has been supporting the club since she was five years old in kindergarten, having grown up in the suburb.

“Our hearts are heavy not being there to support them, but I’m sure our club can feel the Panther Pride from its fans,” she said.

On Friday, Panthers coach Ivan Cleary declared that his team had a responsibility to win against the Storm on Saturday afternoon for their locked-down fans back home.

Speaking to the media on Friday ahead of his side’s biggest match of the year, Cleary spoke about how the fan base had grown by a noticeable amount even though most of the home games were played interstate.

The grand final rematch will be played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday. Star duo Brian To’o and Viliame Kikau have overcome injury scares to be named for the do-or-die clash.

“We take very seriously making our community proud in what we do and all our passionate fan base,” Cleary said.

“We feel very removed [up on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast] but we feel for our loyal fan base stuck in the second lockdown who haven’t been able to see the boys play live, which was such an enjoyable part of [the start of the] season, playing our games at Panthers.

“We feel a real responsibility for those guys and certainly they will be in the back of our minds tomorrow night.”

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