Uncovering the stats that put Isaah up with the legends

If you're searching for a tag line to attach to Isaah Yeo's stellar career to date, look no further than 'sustained excellence'.

No matter the size of the stage and enormity of the challenge, the 30-year-old from Dubbo has carved out a career that guarantees him a place in Panthers, Blues and Kangaroos folklore.

When he leads his team out on Friday night at CommBank Stadium, Yeo will become the first man to play 250 games for the Panthers.

One look at the names alongside him on the honour roll and you get a sense of just how big the achievement is for the four-time premiership player.

Sitting second is 1991 grand final winner Steve Carter on 243 games, with 2003 premiership skipper Craig Gower next on 238.

Third and fourth on the list are favourite sons Royce Simmons (237) and Greg Alexander (228), who played pivotal roles in the club's first ever grand final win in 1991.

"Isaah has been unbelievably reliable, he's a team-first guy and always has been," said Panthers coach Ivan Cleary.

"We’ve had a lot of good leaders but he is special.

"He has gone through every level of the game, week after week after week, playing 80 minutes in the middle. We're really proud of him."

Since reinventing himself as a full-time No.13 in 2020, Yeo has been at the forefront of an incredible period of success for the Panthers.

Yeo made his Origin debut in 2020 and collected Dally M Lock of the Year honours as Penrith secured their first minor premiership and grand final appearance in 17 years.

After going down 26-20 to the Storm in that 2020 decider, the Panthers have set about rewriting history, winning 90 of 113 games and becoming the first team since St George in the 50s and 60s to win four successive premierships.

Such has been their dominance that three consecutive losses after a first-up win in Vegas has the naysayers out in force to suggest the Panthers are ripe for the picking.

Remarkably, the last time Penrith lost three on the bounce was exactly halfway through Yeo's distinguished career, in Rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the 2019 season.

The following week they ran up a half century against the Newcastle Knights and have barely looked back since.

To put Yeo's sustained excellence in perspective as he enters game No.250, rugby league historian David Middleton provides stats that place the Panthers skipper in elite company for the highest winning by 250-game players with four or more premierships.

Top of the pops is the game's most prolific winner of premierships, St George's Norm Provan, who won 191 of his first 250 games at a success rate of 76.7 per cent and had nine titles to his name. 

Provan, who was inducted as an Immortal in 2018, would go on to add a 10th title to his CV in 1965, his final season at the helm of the mighty Red V.

Another of the game's Immortals, Ron Coote won 178 of his first 250 games at 71.5 per cent and had six premierships in his kit bag - four with the Rabbitohs and two with the Roosters.

A cavalcade of Broncos royalty also feature with Kevin Walters, Glenn Lazarus, Michael Hancock, Allan Langer and Andrew Gee all boasting at least four premierships and strike rates around the 70 per cent mark.

Making Lazarus' record all the more remarkable is the fact he won two premierships with the Raiders in 1989 and '90 before moving to the Broncos and snaring two more titles in 1992-93.

One of the game's finest ever front-rowers, Lazarus would add a fifth premiership in 1999 when he led Melbourne to glory in the 254th and final game of his career.

Great players, great clubs, great memories.

The kind of memories Isaah Yeo has built and continues to build as the most capped player in Penrith's proud 58-year history.

"I've always had career goal I’d love to hit 300 for Penrith so touch wood [that can happen]. I'm signed here for a few more years yet so that'd be nice but that's probably looking a bit too far down the track," Yeo said.

"It's pretty special, no one at the club has done it before, and it will be nice to have the milestone at home and share it with my family.

"I haven’t looked back since 2019 when I was teetering between back row and bench.

"I've really liked cementing the 13 role and being able to evolve my career in that area and I feel like I've still got growth in me which I think is exciting.

"I probably could have gone either way there but the coaches trusted me and I'd like to think I've repaid a bit of that as well."

Repaid in sustained excellence. Repaid in premierships.