Cowboy heritage key to Panther

PENRITH flyer Brent Naden cannot travel home to Wellington in NSW due to the NRL’s COVID-19 restrictions, but his thoughts are always with the town that helped him live out his first-grade dreams.

Naden is starring for the table-topping Panthers, but he would not be where he is without his journey that started with the Cowboys on the banks of the Macquarie River.

Wellington, a 30-minute drive from Dubbo, has about 4000 people, and it has experienced countless problems with drugs and domestic violence, but the town is a proven NRL breeding ground.

Past and present stars such as Terry Fahey, Blake Ferguson, Tyrone Peachey and Kotoni Staggs hail from the western heartland.

Naden is also a proud Wellington Cowboys junior — a club that has gone to great lengths to use football as a vehicle to push social change.

Fittingly in the NRL’s Indigenous Round, the Panthers outside back and passionate Wiradjuri man paid tribute to the Cowboys community for his rise to the top-grade ranks.

“It’s more than a footy club, it is like a big family,” said Naden, who has scored five tries in his seven appearances for Penrith this season.

“Once you are a Cowboy, you are always a Cowboy, and we just look out for each other.

“I’ve still got mates who play there.

“The club has cleaned up its act a bit. It had a bit of a reputation as a fighting club, but they’ve cleaned that up.

“The Cowboys are my junior club, so if I wasn’t playing for them, I don’t think I would have got picked up anywhere — I owe a lot to them.”