Edwards, Sivo set to play key roles

• Published date: 30 September 2022

THE PANTHER

It is one of rugby league’s great ironies that Dylan Edwards is perhaps as close to claiming a spot in Penrith’s all-time XIII as he is winning a maiden representative jersey.

Penrith’s clear players’ player this season, Edwards remains the Panthers’ most consistent star before Sunday’s NRL grand final against Parramatta.

Yet somehow he is also the only member of their full-strength starting side not to earn higher honours, left behind when every other player featured in this year’s rep round.

‘‘He was our Merv Cartwright Medallist, so that shows what we think of him,’’ Penrith recruitment manager Jim Jones said.

Jones has been around Penrith for more than 40 years, initially as a player and in his current role for the past three decades.

First shown vision of a teenage Edwards playing five-eighth, Jones was initially told by Penrith coaches the New South Wales north coast junior would not cut it as a half.

‘‘I said, ‘with his training ethic, put him on the wing, just put him somewhere’,’’ Jones said.

‘‘Next year in pre-season he brained them in training, eventually forced his way into the team and away he went.’’

Jones’ history also gives him the best perspective of anyone to judge if the ever reliable Edwards is Penrith’s best fullback, after Rhys Wesser claimed that honour in 2006.

‘‘He’s got to be up there,’’ Jones said.

‘‘Sometimes he plays like a front rower. You know he is there, he is dependable. He is safe under the bomb. He’s tough.

‘‘It’s hard to compare them. In his era Rhys was great.

‘‘Now Dylan Edwards is just phenomenal. He’s a great player.’’

Not that Edwards is willing to agree, given that it is as difficult to get the fullback to give himself a rap as it is to find a bad game he has played in the past three years.

‘‘It’s just how I am,’’ Edwards said.

‘‘Humility and staying humble is good. There’s always room for improvement.

‘‘It’s definitely nice for Jimmy to say that. I don’t know that I agree with it, but he’s a nice fella.’’

Penrith players will, however, do the talking for him.

‘‘He’s amazing and [not talking himself up] sums him up,’’ halfback Nathan Cleary said.

‘‘But I’m glad people are talking about him. I’ve been playing with him for six years and I’ve known how much he means to the team.’’

Others note that Edwards is the perfect fit for Penrith’s style, earning quick play-the-balls at the start and end of sets while also acting as an extra playmaker in attack.

‘‘We call him ghost or Casper because he appears out...