Try-scoring ace feared being squeezed out of Panthers

Jasper Bruce | June 16, 2026

Tom Jenkins is on track to break a 91-year-old record for most tries in an NRL season, but admits he feared being squeezed out of Penrith after 2026.

Jenkins has scored a staggering 20 tries in 13 games this season, most recently crossing for a double in the 68-0 thrashing of Wests Tigers in round 14.

Presuming the ladder-leading Panthers play at least two finals games, Jenkins will pass Dave Brown’s historic mark of 38 tries from the 1935 season if he continues at his current strike rate.

With 12 rounds left in the season and then finals, left winger Jenkins has already scored as many tries as the top scorer from both 2005 and 2013.

He is only five off equalling Rhys Wesser’s club record of 25 tries in Penrith’s premiership-winning 2003 season.

The mild-mannered Jenkins admits he hasn’t yet taken stock of the opportunity to make history this season.

“I couldn’t really care if I was scoring zero tries or if I was scoring five tries, as long as it’s us scoring tries and not the other team,” Jenkins said.

As reward for his blistering start to the season, Jenkins last week signed a three-year contract extension that keeps him in Penrith through to 2029.

But before putting pen to paper, the tryscoring ace held concerns there may not have been room for him after this year.

Salary cap squeezes have become an annual reality during the all-conquering Panthers’ dynasty with Jarome Luai, James Fisher-Harris, Viliame Kikau and Stephen Crichton among the big names to have left.

Perth recruits Scott Sorensen and Liam Henry will become the next premiership winners to exit the club at the end of the season.

With other clubs chasing him, Jenkins feared he may have had to make a hard decision when talks between Penrith and his management stalled.

“There were definitely a few (other clubs) that I was heavily considering, especially when the talks were breaking down here. I won’t name them out of respect for them,” Jenkins said.

“There’s a bit of a salary cap squeeze here. As much as money’s not a massive deal-breaker, there does come a time when you’ve sort of got to understand value and what you probably deserve.

“But there’s also a price to pay when you’re staying at good clubs like Penrith that suited myself and also suited the club.”

Jenkins had always hoped to stay put at the Panthers, who handed him his NRL debut in 2022.

Penrith then plucked the 25-year-old out of third-grade side St Marys last year, when his career was at a crossroads following an early release from his Newcastle deal.

“I obviously have faith in my manager and had faith in the club that we’d be able to get a deal done,” Jenkins said.

“But in saying that, there was probably a few days there, a few weeks there, where I wasn’t too sure where I would end up.”