Cummins offers Penrith plenty in fly-on-the-wall visit
Scott Bailey |
Penrith have gone from calling in Australia’s golden girls ahead of last year’s finals to picking the brain of Test captain Pat Cummins this September.
Panthers coaches met with Cummins on Friday morning, with the cricket star back in his home town spearheading a government announcement on sports funding.
The 32-year-old sat down with coach Ivan Cleary before Penrith players arrived for training, discussing all things leadership, player workload and decision making.
“We chatted for ages,” Panthers coach Ivan Cleary told AAP ahead of Sunday’s NRL semi-final against Canterbury.
“We talked a lot around leadership and preparation and selection, so many different things.
“We were probably asking more questions than he was … It’s fascinating with the parallels you share, particularly around decision making.
“Particularly with fast bowlers around planning and load management. He was super impressive.”
It comes after Penrith also had Jess and Noemie Fox address players last season, after the darlings of Australian sport collected three gold medals at the Olympics.
For a city at the foot of the Blue Mountains, Penrith can currently lay claim to three gold medallists in the Foxes, Test captain Cummins and the four-time defending NRL premiers Panthers.
“We’ve had Mick Fanning around too, it is pretty cool,” Cleary said.
“We have some pretty amazing people come out of this area so it’s cool we’re able to interact.”
A Penrith junior, Cummins remains a fan of the Panthers and at times trades messages with Nathan Cleary.
The Test quick now lives nearby to Trent Robinson, and also has close contacts with the Sydney Swans in the AFL.
But while at his old stomping ground of Penrith’s Howell Oval for a $50 million federal funding announcement for sports clubs to help deal with climate charge, Cummins said he wanted to go across the road and learn from the NRL club.
“They’re doing something pretty special out there. So I want to be a fly on the wall for a morning,” Cummins said.
“I’ve been meaning to for a long time.”
Cummins said there was also plenty he could take from the trip, with coaches across multiple sports regularly now sitting on coaching panels and mentoring groups.
Australia coach Andrew McDonald regularly meets with Geelong, while his predecessor Justin Langer sat on West Coast’s board.
“I reckon definitely the sports science side (you can learn from),” Cummins said.
“I know the physios and strength-and-conditioning guys go and meet quite a bit.
“But for us, I think it’s a lot around decision making, how you create environments, how you manage your players.
“And how you think in different high-performance situations that pop up, which are really transferable.”
AAP
