Jennings signs five-year Penrith deal

Penrith will build their NRL future around Michael Jennings after signing the
brilliant centre until the end of the 2015 NRL season.
The end of the drawn-out negotiations finally came on Monday after the 22-year-old
NSW representative had declared months ago he had no intention of leaving.
The rare five-year deal will keep the local junior the centrepiece of the Panthers'
attack and allow the club to turn its attention to off-contract stars Frank
Pritchard and Michael Gordon.
"The club will always endeavour to provide long-term opportunities to its local
players and keep them as long as possible wherever possible," Panthers chief
executive Michael Leary said in a statement on Monday.
"Jennings is a player who has already shown at a young age what he is capable of."
The brilliant attacking back has played three State of Origin games for the Blues
and one Test for Australia.
His deal comes after Panthers coach Matt Elliott had appealed to local businesses
interested in providing third party support in the club's game day newsletter at the
weekend.
Leary said putting sponsorship arrangements in place had been one reason for Penrith
fans' long wait.
"That's a part of it but of course you've got to go through the negotiation process
with other players that we're looking to sign," he told AAP.
The second-placed Panthers have a host of players coming off contract at the end of
2010, including Maurice Blair, Gavin Cooper, Nigel Plum, Brad Tighe and exciting
youngster Wade Graham.
Popular local product Graham appears next to no chance of staying with Penrith, with
a decision between North Queensland and Cronulla likely by the end of the week.
Graham's manager Mark Stewart said Penrith were yet to table an offer for the
19-year-old.
"There's no indication from Wade yet which way he's likely to go," Stewart told AAP.
"Both the offers on the table are quite appealing.
"We're going back to Penrith as well and having something hopefully finalised by the
end of this week.
"It's disappointing for Wade, he's a Penrith kid through and through but that's the
way it is sometimes."
Leary said he was waiting to hear from Stewart.
"I've told his manager that we would like to keep him," the Panthers boss said.
"He's got to come to us and tell us what it's going to cost to keep him."
Meanwhile, Cronulla captain Trent Barrett's final decision on retirement will be put
on hold until his shoulder injury is assessed later this week.
He has attracted interest from Canberra and Parramatta as well as the Sharks.