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James Maloney is backing his former club, the Penrith Panthers, for a five-peat and believes the key ingredient to their success is pretty simple — fitness.
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The Panthers secured an historic four-peat last October and despite losing two of their best players in Jarome Luai and James Fisher-Harris, are still tipped by many to make it five-straight premierships.
It’s a feat that hasn’t been achieved since St. George in the 1960s, so there has to be a secret behind Penrith’s dominance. There’s some winning formula that only they’ve figured out, right?
Wrong.
Maloney, who spent his final years in the NRL at the Panthers before heading off to the Catalans Dragons, told foxsports.com.au “you’d be brave to tip against Penrith” for the 2025 premiership — and believes their dynasty comes down to endurance.
“I think the one place they beat everyone is they’re just so much fitter than everyone else,” he said.
“Melbourne are renowned as a really fit side and then I think back to the grand final last year, some of their smaller guys, like (Ryan) Papenhuyzen, were absolutely ran off their feet.
“And that’s what Penrith seem to do. They just sort of churn through their work and just continue to do it.
“They’ve got a change in some players, but I think that’s such a big advantage that they seem to have at the moment.
“When there’s a team that can sustain a high intensity period for longer than what you can… it’s very hard to do it.
“It’s not necessarily these incredible, freakish plays that they’re coming up with. They’re just turning up, executing when they’re tired, late in games and they’re in position when they need to be.
“… A lot of that comes down to down the fitness. There’s obviously a lot more to it technically, but the fitness levels count for a lot.”
Maloney will be able to vouch for how much of a role fitness plays in success after this weekend’s Nines Premier League tournament on the Gold Coast, which will be shown live on Kayo.
The 38-year-old will lace up the boots and play for the first time in almost 18th months with the Southern Sharks — who are chasing their own three-peat in this competition.
Maloney’s comeback will continue after that following the announcement from his junior club, Ourimbah Magpies, that he’s signed on to play in their first-grade team this year.
Maloney last played for semi-professional French team Lezignan in 2023.
He’s now at the tail end of a three-week fitness regime, which includes “staying off the p**s and training most days” in preparation for his return to the field.
While living in the south of France, Maloney was enjoying the good life, which included disconnecting completely from the NRL.
But he was lured back into the day-to-day rigours of the game when he signed with the North Queensland Cowboys as an assistant coach — a role he’s no longer in.
With Maloney’s guidance the Cowboys’ went from an 11th-place finish in 2023 to a semi-final in 2024, while five-eighth Tom Dearden had his best season to date.
There’s just something about Maloney’s influence — you could say he has the Midas touch in rugby league.
The clever playmaker helped guide the Warriors to a Grand Final appearance in 2011. He formed a formidable halves pairing with Mitchell Pearce to take the Roosters to a premiership and three minor premierships in as many years.
He was instrumental in the Sharks’ maiden premiership in 2016 and was New South Wales’ saviour in the 2019 Origin series.
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After lifting the trophy with Cronulla, Maloney traded the beach for the foot of the mountains. The Panthers finished fifth and 11th respectively in 2018 and 2019, but what was brewing behind the scenes was much more important than those results.
Maloney played alongside Nathan Cleary in those two years and kept the No.6 jersey warm for when Luai was ready to step into it full-time.
He laughed off suggestions that he’s had anything to do with the success of Cleary and Luai — but said it’s “awesome” to sit back and watch the pair thrive. Particularly Cleary, who was just 20-years old when they started playing together.
“I think best part about Nathan is that he’s such a good kid. He’s from a good family and everything he does is still the same. There’s no arrogance in him and he’s a down to earth guy,” Maloney said.
“He goes about his stuff week after week and last year even with some setbacks, injuries are not easy to deal with, but he obviously is doing the work away from the field, because as soon as he comes back, he’s straight to where he left off.”
Cleary, now 27, already boasts a resume that even some of the game’s greatest could only dream of. He’s won four premierships, has two Clive Churchill Medals, has played 14 games for NSW and five for Australia.
Traditionalists will say it’s way too early to bring up his name in the future Immortals conversation but if he continues on this trajectory, that honour is inevitable.
Maloney was there in the formative years, Cleary’s third and fourth seasons in the NRL — when things can sometimes go pear-shaped for emerging halfbacks.
But he saw the signs that suggested Cleary had what it takes to become the best… and stay there.
“He’s always had a really good work ethic. It’s the classic cliche, first to training and the last to leave, but that’s actually what he was,” Maloney said.
“There was heap of times where I was in the car going home and he’d be out doing kicking and stuff like that.
“He’s always had that and it’s something I’ve always said about Nathan when he was young, and he had this meteoric rise.
“But he was also very self aware about where his game was. He never got caught up in the hype and people talking about how good he was. He was very good at self-assessing, knowing exactly where he was and that he still had areas he could work on.”
Maloney spent a lot of time with Cleary over their two years together but won’t take any credit for what his former halves partner has achieved.
“He’s got a pretty decent mentor in his old man (Panthers coach Ivan Cleary) so that helps,” he said.
“I’d love to be able to say I helped in a small part, but we just talked about footy things in general.
“Maybe, just being around each other, he picked up some things. Maybe he actually picked up things on what not to do and he went the other way.
“I’d like to think there was something I could’ve taught him but I don’t think much of what he’s achieved is down to me… that’s all on him.”
Maloney will be put to the test this weekend with a number of ex-NRL stars also set to feature in the Nines tournament across various teams.
But Maloney’s inclusion in the Southern Sharks line-up comes with a bit of added pressure given they won in 2023 and 2024.
When it was put to Maloney that his team were the ‘Penrith Panthers of the Nines Premier League’ he laughed and said “I might call Nath for a pep talk.”
