How the Penrith community is using rugby league to educate youth and fight the stereotypes

Penrith locals say rugby league and the western suburbs have a bad reputation. Kerby Breust has three sons who have grown up playing rugby. Amanda Cooper has been volunteering for 15 years and was watching the junior game at Blacktown Workers Stadium. She believes the reputation of the area is unfair. The Panthers on the Prowl Foundation helps provide opportunities and support for school age children. It's a tight community that steps up when ever one of them is in need. Everyone knows everyone. They help each other out. There are few bad people in the community. NSW Police refutes any link between a cancelled Penriths Districts match in early May and bikie gang shootings.

Penrith community uses rugby league to educate youth and fight stereotypes. Panthers on the Prowl Foundation helps provide opportunities and support for school age children.

Penrith District is the heartland of Junior Rugby League in Australia. Penritt District has 25 separate clubs operating 580 teams catering to under six years of age. The NRL team, the Penrtith Panthers, is currently on top of the ladder and on target to defend their premiership crown. They also make up a fair portion of NSW State of Origin team. Club runs the Panthers on the Prowl Foundation, established 15 years ago to help children from the area at risk of emotional, social or physical harm.

Penrith was the first NRL club to sign up to the new program established with the NSW Police Youth Command. It offers at-risk youth the opportunity to play sport through Police Citizens Youth Clubs. Boxing champion George Kambosos Jr. started his career at the Rockdale-St George PCYC. Retired rugby league legend Sonny Bill Williams is one of the athlete ambassadors.  

According to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Penrith showed no increase in any major offences over the two years to December 2021. The number of young people charged by police was considerably lower than for any year in the previous decade. PenRith is slightly higher than the state average in terms of crime. It's not the highest concentration of crimes but it's on the wrong side of the average.

Penrith community uses rugby league to educate youth and fight stereotypes.

Gangs form in working class neighbourhoods where economically life is tough and opportunities are limited. They have negative reputations and become targets for police attention and media vilification. Studying gangs is about studying communities and determining who is connected to whom and how.

Penrith Panthers on the Prowl uses rugby league to educate and fight stereotypes. Brogan Mulhall has worked with aid organisations in areas like the slums of Sao Paulo in Brazil and in the southern African nation of Zambia. He believes that the problem with young boys in Australia is that they lose the cultural connection to explore their identity. The Panthers try to provide programs that offer that opportunity for connection. They try and teach boys to be responsible and respect others. It's a cultural void in Australian society. This void is easily picked up by things like gangs and social media.