Leniu feasts on more NRL title success

Alex Mitchell | October 4, 2022

With a bucket of popcorn chicken in one hand and two premiership rings on the other, Spencer Leniu was a picture of contentment as he celebrated Penrith’s title in the sheds on Sunday.

“I’m good now, I’ve got my KFC,” he told AAP.

“I haven’t had KFC in so many weeks now.”

While he said it with a laugh, Leniu knows his committed club would sacrifice anything in search of an extra edge when it comes to high performance.

Some gave up alcohol – Leniu said that wasn’t hard as he’s not a big drinker – but whatever could be done, was done, as the Panthers sought to take their game to new levels in quest of a second straight premiership.

“Obviously the boys sacrificed a lot, things like jumping off the grog,” he said.

“Diet is a massive thing for me and not eating fast food has been pretty tough but it all worked out in the end.”

Leniu only saw 20 minutes of action in the decider but made every one of them count, with some particularly damaging runs among his 98m.

When it comes to his approach to taking the field, it’s a simple mantra: he’s here for a good time, not a long time.

“In the last couple of weeks, especially being finals, I was just like, ‘You know what – I’m just gonna give it everything’,” he said.

“I’ve got limited time when I play, so I’ll try to make it worth it … I just give them my all.

“I hope I played every game as if it was my last and I hope everyone else has seen that too.”

But the 22-year-old dual premiership player’s favourite moment of grand final night was uniting the pair of championship rings for which he’d worked so hard.

“I didn’t want to bring last year’s ring because it could be bad luck … I went over to embrace my dad, he was wearing the ring and just gave it to me,” Leniu said.

“I just thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is so special’.”