Over 400 players from across the Bathurst region had some special visitors on Wednesday as the Penrith Panthers spent the afternoon at St Pat’s for the Peachey-Richardson Gala Day.
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One of the visiting Panthers was Lithgow junior Wayde Egan and while Bathurst may not be his home, some of his family made the trip to catch up with him.
“Couple of relatives, aunties, cousins, so it’s good to see them out here,” he said.
“It’s good the NRL brings footy out to the country. I know everyone loves it out here and they’re keen to watch the game.”
It’s been an exciting year for the Lithgow Storm junior, who made his NRL debut in round four against the North Queensland Cowboys.
“I’m pretty happy with the ways things have been going and I wasn’t expecting to make my debut this early,” he said.
“I’m very grateful I got to do it and I’m hoping to get another chance.”
He hasn’t been named to start this weekend but he’s still cherishing the opportunity to come out to a place where he played as a junior.
“I’ve played a lot of games [at Carrington Park]. I played plenty of my junior footy there,” he said.
“It was good to train on this morning. It looks like it’s in unreal conditions so the council has down an unreal job for Friday night.”
Egan featured for the Panthers last Friday against the Canterbury Bulldogs at Penrith and he said he was lucky enough to be on the field to witness Dean Whare putting a massive hit on Bulldogs half Jeremy Marshall-King.
“It was unreal and it was good being out there when he made the hit,” he said.
“I don’t think I’ve heard a hit that hard and it pumped up the crowd and pumped up the boys.
“It was a good way to finish off the game.”
Egan had a breakout year in 2017 when he led the Panthers’ National Youth Competition side to second place and a preliminary final.
