If Penrith win again this year, they will rightly be crowned the greatest team of the modern era.
I think they'll be respected and well represented in terms of pure results / achievements.
But equally I think the comp as a whole doesn't have as many true heavyweights like it did over that 2006-2014 window. Particularly around 2011-14; Storm w/ the big 3 and robot forwards, Roosters with brick wall defence, Souths w/ GI, reynolds + Burgess on a mission, Bulldogs emerging with a revolutionary style of play (at the time), Manly's champion team looking for one more premiership, Thurston's cowboys building up to their 2015 win... So many genuine legends of the game all coming into their best years around the same time. These teams had so much structure, class and defencive resilience in the big games. You knew one of the top 4 teams would win the comp, but i was too hard to write any of them off when finals arrived.
There's a few top players going around today, but I reckon most teams have been hibernating for a while now and things will get more competitive over the next few seasons.
Post 2014, most of the heavyweights from those earlier years went into rebuilding periods. In 2017 it felt like the Storm were the only one left standing. It was lonely at the top for them that year. Roosters went into desperation mode to get back up to that level and bought peak Tedesco and Cronk, before proceeding to wipe the floor clean with most teams over 2018-2019.
Even though the storm went on to win in 2020, I thought they weren't the same side anymore (but still clinical). Infact, since 2019 (2017 for storm), both the Storm and Roosters have gradually gone down a few pegs year on year.
It was then that Penrith's side - after years of mediocrity - had finally emerged. Other competitors weren't really there yet in terms of their squad, ie. Souths and Eels.
While they can be clinical at times it's impossible to ignore how perfect the timing has been for the Panthers. Not only was there a general lack of contenders, but the game had some drastic changes w/ the six-again rule that was optimised for a fast young side with mobile forwards like them.
They are a great side but I think they get overwhelmed / outclassed by a fair few of the champion teams coinciding with our golden period. Even just looking post 2010; 2011 Manly, 2012 Storm, 2013 Roosters, 2014 Rabbitohs, 2017 Storm, 2018-2019 Roosters all had the teams to suffocate penrith, and the experience in those backlines / spines / forward packs would've been evident imo.
