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Al.Bundy
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By Nick Walshaw
December 04, 2008 12:00am
THEY'VE stolen the coach, the conditioner, and even lock Nathan Smith. Now Penrith are trying to pinch one of the Raiders' great celebrations.
In undoubtedly the sporting balls-up of 2008, the Panthers have released a new advertising campaign that features Canberra players partying instead of their own.
The offending image - printed on almost 100,000 items above the tagline Belong Believe - shows Raider Clinton Schifcofske moments after kicking an extra-time penalty goal against Wests Tigers in 2006.
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With arms raised in triumph, the Raiders' hero is embraced by teammates Lincoln Withers, Jason Smith and Adrian Purtell.
"And, yeah, I know all about it," Panthers boss Mick Leary said when contacted by The Daily Telegraph yesterday morning.
"I've only just finished speaking with my marketing staff and they know I'm not happy. That I can't see a funny side to it.
"In any type of business it's all about getting things right. But in this case it certainly isn't right . . . someone has stuffed up."
And that "someone" is Sydney advertising agency Thomas Marsden - who yesterday left account executive Raj Chikkerur to sum up the mood. "Oh, dear . . . dear, dear," Chikkerur mumbled when told of the blue.
"Deary, deary me."
As of last Friday, the Panthers had released 30,000 merchandise catalogues with the black and white image printed on the back page. The euphoric portrait also fronts a membership campaign now appearing - full-page, no less - in some 60,000 copies of Rugby League Week .
"So while you can't see me, I'm in a cold sweat," Chikkerur added. "I've never had my name in print and didn't need the first time to be like this.
"But what can I say? This has never happened before. All we can do is apologise. I will apologise to people in the street if I have to."
Of course, 2008 was hardly a year to remember for Penrith fans.
The mountain men struggled to 12th and battled talk of player unrest. Coach Matthew Elliott famously fashioned his tie into a noose - with only an 11th-hour board reprieve saving him from the gallows.
Ironically, that famous image was prompted by the Raiders' 74-12 humiliation of the Panthers at Bruce Stadium on August 10.
But surely, despite all this, it's still not so bad that someone couldn't find at least one memorable image from the past three seasons to whack on a poster . . . is it?
"Look, without repeating myself all I can really say is that we're not happy and we will be rectifying things," Leary said.
Of course, the other big question is who actually chose the offending image?
Certainly it couldn't have been coach Elliott or head conditioner Carl Jennings, both of whom were at Canberra the year the now-infamous photograph was taken.
Nor do any of the Raiders pictured have any family members on the Panthers marketing staff.
"Although my junior club is called Lavington Panthers," laughed Purtell. "We changed names when the Panthers Leagues Club took us over . . . so at least they can say there's some connection there."
And so we return to a sweaty Chikkerur.
"Yes, that would be my artist who chose it," he conceded. "Right now, he's on three days leave . . . but I'll certainly be asking him about it on his return."
And that could be the shortest comeback in league history.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24746865-5001021,00.html
