Previously, it was the Penrith sports group’s executive, Brian Fletcher, who seemed to slam the door on the prospects of the event being held in 2025 as he told The Daily Telegraph that hosting it was “impractical”.
Fletcher argued: “There’s no way in the world we could fit it into the schedule. Our coaches and football department have said the players couldn’t stand up to it.”
Those comments came after Penrith defeated Melbourne Storm to effectively ‘book’ their place in the game but when Wigan Warriors did the same a week later, beating Hull KR in the Super League Grand Final, the desire to put the game on seemed to gain traction.
Wigan’s CEO Kris Radlinski confirmed that his side would “do whatever it takes” to get the game on but admitted that it would take “two people to want to do that”.
Then, Penrith’s biggest star Nathan Cleary appeared to answer the call, suggesting that the game be held at Magic Round but once again, another Penrith representative poured water on the plans.
This time, instead of Fletcher it’s CEO Matt Cameron who has appeared on James Graham’s The Bye Roundpodcast to explain the impossibility of the game being held at Magic Round.
He would explain that a previous agreement between Penrith Panthers and the NRL for them to be the designated ‘home’ team at Magic Round means that the World Club Challenge could not be played there.
Magic Round in the NRL is not a loop fixture with clubs instead forfeiting their own home games to be the ‘home’ side at Magic. As such, Cameron argued that they cannot pull the rug on that to hold the World Club Challenge.
He explained: “There’s a commercial arrangement that’s already in place with the NRL for the next three years (for us) to be the home team at Brisbane.”
When Graham pushed back that Penrith could still be the home team, Cameron answered: “There’s a commercial arrangement there to play against a certain opponent.”
He did concede that talks have been ongoing with his Wigan counterpart but that there is simply no way the fixture can go ahead.
“I’ve been trading emails with Kris Radlinski overnight and the window is just so small for us with mandated leave, which rolls into mandated training periods before you can play. The window to play that game is also complicated by Vegas.”
He confirmed that there had been plans to hold the game in Vegas, stating: “Kris is keen to get it on but from the Panthers’ point of view, we’re just really struggling at the moment to see where it fits in the schedule with all the other arrangements.”
