Penrith Panthers have started to provide pathways for female players

Penrith was in the Central West this week running a series of free coaching clinics for males and females, visiting Forbes, Dubbo and Bathurst during their time in the region.

It isn't the first time the club has come to Dubbo, regularly running programs for almost 10 years but Thursday was special for a different reason.

The Panthers included a female-only session, something they had never done before ahead of the club hopefully launching an NRLW side in the future.

Panthers Development Manager Sam Jones said the club are committed to investing in the Western female game.

"That's just the first step, the next one is to run coaching clinics and programs up here for the girls like what we do for the boys," he said.

"We want to try and mirror what we do with the Rams programs the same with the girls.

"We want to support the region with their female competitions as much as we can to try and provide as many Western girls with a pathway as we can."

Several Western Rams products got the opportunity to play in a trial match late last year against the Panthers' Tarsha Gale Cup (under 19s) side, something Jones believes could become more common going forward.

"Now we are transitioning into the female game," he said.

"We had our first involvement with the females in Western was bringing a Tarsha Gale Cup side up in December, we asked anyone to come trial.

"If you are good enough, we will give you an opportunity and we had six girls who came down to play."

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Current Penrith co-captain Isaah Yeo is one of many current first graders at the club who hail from the Central West.

The likes of Liam Martin and Tyrone Peachey are also from the region while former players Billy Burns, Matt Burton and Kaide Ellis have all moved on to other clubs.

Since beginning their partnership with the Rams a decade ago, Jones believes it has been beneficial for both parties.

"It's always great coming out here to the bush, we've got really good ties with the people out here," he said.

"We've been doing this for 10 years now, we've always got more resources and we are happy to share anything and everything with people up here.

"We are always meeting new people and those we deal with up here wherever they are have become great people for the club and are friends."

Away from the Panthers NRL squad, a number of Western Rams graduates are beginning to make themselves known at the club in the lower grades.

"The male space has been great with the locally developed players at Penrith as well as the Western Rams kids," Jones said.

"There are numerous players in our Harold Matthews, SG Ball and Jersey Flegg squads who are from out here.

"Now some of those boys are transitioning into the under 20s and first grade program."

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