The disaster that is the 2024 season is almost at an end, and just another game to go, but not after another loss, this time to the Baguettes, 20-10, in a display that could only be described as a team that has all but given up on the season and has no plan, no direction and at the moment, a future that nobody can predict. Whether this so-called “rebuild” is actually underway or in any way on the up, is anybody’s guess, but whatever next season provides the fans, it has to be better than what the last two have been because sitting with a combined record of 9-22 (with a game to play) is not pretty reading for anybody, and whoever comes in as the next Head Coach is going to have some serious work ahead of them, it is going to take more than just some fancy graphics and a new coat of paint to change the fortunes around of this franchise.

Speaking after the game, Team Owner Leam Mark Farrar was honest about where the team sits and how things are going with the new head coach search as well as where the team sits heading into next season:-

“Look, we will have more to say come the end of our season, which we are clear is this weekend. We haven’t performed as we wanted, we have plainly forgotten everything, and we know that things are tough. I hate the feeling each week of losing, of having to look at that scoreboard and see a dejected roster, a roster that I believe has the heart and soul to compete but just is not where it needs to be right now. It sucks watching the other teams fighting for wins, fighting for the postseason and we are not anywhere near that fight. We will come back stronger than we have this season and if that means a complete overhaul of the roster, if that means making some tough but necessary changes, so be it. I hate being where we are, but I’m going to keep on fighting for this franchise”

The Lions end the season against the 8-7 Reasonable Lengths this week, a team that was in the postseason fight up until a few weeks ago, but coming off the back of 3 straight losses, including last weeks 23-0 shutout against the Echidnas, with the team seemingly also falling down the stretch (3 points on average over the last four games), this game could turn out to be a highlight for the Lions, regardless of the result. While the Lions have struggled on the ground this season, and are staring down the barrel of a season without a rushing touchdown, the Lengths have struggled in the air, with both James Q. Keillor and Billy Hammer both unable to get the ball into the endzone, Hammer with the fifth-lowest pass completion of qualifying QB’s (with at least 200 pass attempts) at 59.3%, where Joe Chacon sits up at almost 67%, in a season where he too is staring down the barrel of more interceptions than touchdowns, but baring some sort of defensive miracle from the Lengths, will sit outside the top 10 QBs for sacks (currently equal 15th). The one shining light in the Lions this season will be that Chacon will be one of only possibly 11 QB’s to pass for 3000 yards this season, so there is some positives, but many are wondering if the Lions are fully sold on Chacon as their starter moving forward. Defensively, this could be a game worth watching, both teams with low tackle counts, best for the Lengths being James J. Keillor at 72 tackles, while the Lions have seen Douglas Dunham come into his old self in the last game, and now sits with 68 tackles on the season and while that is a very large downgrade from previous seasons, it is just another stat line in the performances that the Lions have shown, with 12 touchdowns to their credit this season, compared to 17 last season, it has not been the season that many hoped for.

Fans and the team alike had grand hopes for this season to be the one that turned things around, that put the Lions back onto the map, back into postseason contention, that gave everyone that push towards a league title, but with so many teams coming into their own this season, the Lions got left behind very quickly. A 1-4 run to begin the season, topped off with 2 divisional losses was never going to be the start the Lions needed, and despite a surprising (and tough) victory over Paris in Week 6, the wheels fell off again, with five straight defeats and that was curtains on the season. Another surprising victory against Tillamook steadied the ship for one week, but it was just a blip on the radar as the Lions suffered more defeats and are staring down the line of either two wins less than last season, or once again halving their win total from the previous season.

Whoever comes in as Head Coach next season, has a tough ask ahead of them. Are they ready for this challenge?

Game Prediction: Does it really matter who wins? Let’s just take the Lengths because they actually knew how to play football this season. The Lions forgot week in and week out.

Dear Lions Fans,

As always, thank you for the support and commitment you have shown the team over this season. We have seen some very big ups and downs this season and I personally appreciate all the energy, love and support you have given to everyone here at Lions HQ.

We understand that the last couple of seasons have been extremely tough on us, and on you as our fans. We all had high hopes for a division title, postseason football here at The Lions Den and maybe even a chance to play and compete for a league championship. But the bottom line is that we failed to live up to that hope and excitement and we failed to live up to our own expectations.

I share your frustration. I hate losing, and I hate letting everyone who works here down, but what I hate the most is letting you, the fans down. We have had too much of this over the last two seasons.

Nobody is more unsatisfied that I am at the results that we have seen. We have a high standard to uphold and right now, we are not meeting those standards. That is across the whole organisation. The responsibility for making us better lies with me, and we have already begun our offseason work and planning. We have a solid selection of draft picks, and we plan to make full use of the offseason. We will be aggressive during free agency; we will be aggressive with our trading strategy, and we will use the draft to bring in the best young talent and we will continue to strengthen the talented core of players already on our roster.

No one can ever guarantee wins or losses. But as long as I remain the owner of this team, I can guarantee one thing. That we will never give up on fighting on every single down, every single play and we will not give up until the final whistle of every single game. Our goal remains the same, to bring championships to Penrith and I’ll be doing everything that I can to make that a reality. That is what we deserve as a franchise.

That is what you deserve as fans.

Sincerely,
Leam Mark Farrar
Team Owner & CEO, Penrith Lions

Following the beginning of the new season, the Penrith Lions have been confirmed to hold the fifth overall pick in the upcoming draft, along with the 30th overall selection in the first round. This is two of the 12 selections that the Lions currently hold heading into the draft, with the team slated at the moment to select twice in the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th rounds, with one selection in the remaining rounds. The Lions hold their own selections in Round 1 (5th overall), Round 4 (101st overall), Round 5 (135th overall), Round 6 (166th overall) and Round 7 (197th overall) along with selections tied to other teams.

The Lions received the 30th selection from Zena as the final part of the Napoleon Whitmore trade back in 2022, with the Lions coming very much worse out of that trade, with a record since that trade of 8-16 and no postseason play, while the Soneros have gone from strength to strength, amassing a record of 21-2-1, with two straight visits to the postseason and making it all the way to the conference championship last season.

Penrith received the 43rd selection from Entebbe as part of the Fred Pickney trade that was finalized in the dying moments of the trade deadline, and along with a third-round selection (90th overall) that Entebbe received from Stockholm as part of the Todd Christensen/Kyle Moore trade. The 55th selection from Nice was received by Penrith as part of the trade deadline deal that sent defensive tackle Peter Gant to Nice.

The Lions received the 127th selection from the Balsicas Zombies (recently rebranded and relocated and now the Oviedo Tardigrados) was received in a pick swap done during the 2023 draft, along with a sixth-round selection that was subsequently traded onto the Reasonable Lengths. The 150th selection was received from the Derry Mean Machine as part of the trade that saw Fred Pickney arrive in Penrith, along with a fifth-round selection that was sent onwards to Nice for defensive end Pedro Lee. The 180th selection from Cheesy Philly was received by Penrith as part of a draft day pick swap that saw Philly take cornerback Sonic Harinezumi.

The Lions have made it clear of their intentions to be aggressive in this upcoming offseason and rumors are that they are willing to entertain discussions for their selections but have made it clear to other teams that the fifth overall selection is not for sale unless a very sizeable offer comes in to bolster not only their draft stocks but the roster as a whole.

PENRITH, NSW – The Penrith Lions today have agreed to terms with their next head coach.

The Lions have agreed to terms with Batman Robins Linebackers coach Roy Rodriguez to become the second head coach in franchise history. Following a search process that included interviews with eight different candidates completed over the last few weeks, the Lions will move forward into the offseason with Rodriguez as Head Coach.

Rodriguez, 48, brings with him years of both offensive and defensive experience and most recently was the inaugural Head Coach of Les Republicans de Paris, guiding them to two consecutive conference titles, and despite losing both league championship games to the North Stars, he led a Paris side to records of 14-2 in 2022 and 10-5-1, leading with top-10 offences and defences both seasons, including the best defence in the league in 2022, conceding only 111 points. During his tenure, Paris lost their seven matches by only an average of 7.8 points. Rodriguez moved on to join the Batman Robins coaching staff under George Atkins this season and has led the linebackers to another solid performing year, with the Robins once again a top-10 defence.

General Manager Todd Carlton

“Roy Rodriguez is a dynamic leader who we feel will be able to bring about the positive and rebuilding changes that we want to see moving forward. His knowledge of both offensive and defensive manners will bring a positive energy and enthusiasm to the whole organisation as our head coach. We all want to create a winning atmosphere here, not just on the field, but in practice, in the rooms and across the whole franchise and Roy has developed and nurtured a winning atmosphere at both Paris and Batman and that same mentality is a big part of his plan for the Lions moving forward”.

Head Coach Roy Rodriguez

“I could not be more excited, along with my wife and family, to be given this opportunity to be a head coach once again. I am passionate about getting down to work with the whole organisation and helping guide this rebuild into its next phase. I can’t wait to hit the ground running and get things going, from meeting the players and backroom staff, to beginning the long process of seeing where this team can improve moving into the new season and where we can become a strong force, not just in our division, but in the league and building this team to be a strong contender year in and year out”

PENRITH, NSW - In the first official trade move of the new season, Penrith have traded with the Derry Mean Machine, welcoming two new players and a draft selection.

The Penrith Lions and Derry Mean Machine have come to an agreement, only just now approved by the league office to see second-year player Alan McCoy head off to Derry, along with a 2027 second-round selection whilst receiving both Antonio De Sade and Thomas Hartley, with a 2026 fifth-round selection.

The Lions say goodbye to McCoy, drafted last season as the team's opening first-round selection, he finishes with 540 plays in 11 games for the Lions, only allowing 21 tackles, allowing zero tackles in 4 games last season. He did suffer an ankle and knee injury during the season which saw him miss several games, in essence losing his starting spot to both Michael Adams and William Sherrod, who now will be joined by a new member of the O-Line heading into training camp.

De Sade, who was drafted in the seventh round in 2022 joins after a down year in 2024, giving up an additional sack and only seeing 974 plays in 15 games for the Mean Machine, whilst also giving up 72 tackles, 23 more than the previous year. He did, however, achieve a solitary tackle in a win against the Zombies. Hartley joins his third team after being drafted in the twelfth round of the 2022 foundation draft as well, and despite playing 12 games last season, he too had a down year, recording only 22 tackles and 2 interceptions and will look to slot in alongside both Luis Walsh and Tom Henson in the CB1/CB2 position this season.

In finalizing the trade, General Manager Todd Carlton talked about what the deal meant for the Lions and how it seems to be heading into the draft that this season, the Lions have done less discussions in the trade market:-

"To be honest, we are still being aggressive. We are taking our time with trade talks, discussing them, getting second opinions and making sure that we are getting the best possible deal. We admit that last season, we jumped right in off the deep end and made some moves that we felt at the time were right, but turned out wrong because we didn't take every possible moment to think about it, we saw it on it's merits and rather than actually seeing if we could make a deal better on our end, or get maybe a bit more out of it, we just took it and it did bite us in the behind last year. We are still being aggressive and watching the trade market as it ebbs and flows this offseason and making sure that not only are we not being left behind, but that all the other teams know that we are in this, we are still here and we are still being aggressive in our trading and offseason strategy".

With today being draft day, Round 1 is right around the corner and with the Lions holding both the 5th overall and the 30th overall, attention has very much turned to the 32 war rooms that are gearing up for what will be an exciting and hopefully memorable draft for the 224 rookies who are going to hear their names called out to begin their EFL journey today. But the other exciting news is SCHEDULE RELEASE DAY!!!

That's right, the new 2025 league schedule has been released. Every single game covered, from the opening preseason games, right down to those all-important Week 16 games that could decide divisional titles, postseason berths and who will be starting their preseason plans just that little earlier than first thought. We here at The Weekly Roar have all the details with the upcoming schedule. Along with the traditional divisional rivals of the Florence Fools, Tillamook Sharknado and the recently renamed Balsicas (or Debt-Laden) Corpses; the Lions will face every team in both the BC North and FB South division, along with the recently relocated Oviedo Tardigrados (formerly the Seattle Slammers).

So, the most important thing. Our first month, what does it look like?
For the first time in team history, the Lions will head away from home to open the season as they begin the season with a visit to Hong Kong to face off against the Kings, with the Lions looking to make it 2-from-2 against the Kings and secure another victory like the 33-0 shutout back in 2022. They will then head onwards to Grand Rapids to face the second of the newly relocated teams, with the team formerly known as the Portland Pilots moving and becoming the Grand Rapids Rampage. Week 3 will see the home opener against Cheesy Philly, with Week 4 being our first divisional matchup, again facing off against Florence away from home. A somewhat tough start to the season we think.

When are those all-important divisional games?
As the Lions look towards bettering their 1-5 divisional record from last season, the divisional games are going to be crucial. Alongside facing the Fools in Florence in Week 4, they will head away to Balsicas in Week 14 and Tillamook in Week 15.

Our home divisional fixtures are also quite apart, with the first home game being in Week 7 against the Sharknado, followed by the return fixture against Florence in Week 9. We then don't have our final home divisional game until Week 16, when we face the Corpses, with the hope that we are either celebrating our first divisional title, or playing for it and maybe even playing for (or celebrating) a postseason berth. Only time will tell.

There has to be a tough away stretch of games for the season, right?
Actually, not this year. Unlike last year when the Lions had four straight away games, the worst that we received this year was two away games in a row. We did, however, get a three-game home stretch for Weeks 5 to 7, where we face Edlington, Nice and Tillamook, but nothing hard away from home. Our schedule actually ranks as the 13th easiest across the whole league (8th easiest in our conference), we face teams with a combined record from last year of 122-133-1, with games against teams that had winning records space apart quite well. Overall, we received quite a favourable schedule from the league, however, no prime-time games, however, this may change if the league chooses to "flex" a game into the prime-time slot.

Preseason is important as well, who did we get in those four games?
Here is where the fun begins.

Our preseason schedule, with the hope that we can make it another 4-0 preseason and stretch our win streak in preseason games to 7 straight, starts out with a visit to Sumpan, a team we haven't faced since Week 3 of the 2022 season (a 24-0 victory for the Lions). We then come home for a game against the Batman Robins, who we will face twice this season (Week 8, at Batman). This will actually be our first meeting against Batman.

Week 3 sees us again head away from The Lions Den and face off against Star City, a team we currently hold a 2-0 all-time record against, and who we hope we can defeat again like we did last preseason 13-10. Our final preseason matchup sees us coming home and welcoming the defending league champions in the Montevideo Screamers, where we will hope to bring about another victory against them, with the ledger currently at 2-1 to us. This will also be the second straight preseason we have played both Star City and Montevideo.

We already talked about our last game of the regular season, but what does that last month of games actually look like?
In addition to playing against the Corpses in our final game of the regular season (but hopefully not our last home game of the season), the last month will see us start with a visit by the Entebbe Elders, a team we will look to avenge a 23-6 loss to in Week 10 of the 2023 season, and then finishing off with divisional games, starting with a visit to Balsicas and the Corpses, followed by Tillamook. Divisional games make up three of our final four games, so that could be the tough part of the schedule we were looking for or looking to avoid.


N.B. Corpses logo remains as shown for the season

MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY - The Lions have made their first trade during the draft, bolstering the defence at the same time.

The Penrith Lions, after drafting defence in their first three picks this draft, most recently the selection of linebacker John Matthews from Texas A&M, have brought in another linebacker, after trading away a third-round selection (83rd overall) and a sixth-round selection (166th overall) to the Porth Emmett Auctioneers and have brought in linebacker Carlos Broman.

Broman, a 2023 fifth-round selection for the Auctioneers played 15 games for the Auctioneers over his two seasons there, racking up over 600 plays, a forced fumble and 56 tackles, 53 of them last season, along with an interception. He had a career-high game in Week 9 against Edlington, racking up 10 tackles, dropping below 5 tackles a game only 4 times last season, and will look to replicate those sorts of performances for the Lions in what looks like a completely revamped defence starting to be produced by Head Coach Roy Rodriguez and new Defensive Coordinator Elmer Love.

After the trade was finalized, General Manager Todd Carlton spoke to reporters before heading back into the war room, and was asked about why the Lions were said to be going all out and aggressive this offseason but so far have made very little noise, if any:-

"I don't agree with that, being aggressive does not always mean being the flashest person at the table, or at the meeting and it doesn't mean that we are going out there and making trades left, right and center for the sake of it. When we said that this offseason we would be aggressive, it meant that we were not always going to see eye to eye on trades or offers that were sent our way and it meant that we would in fact, say no straight up if the trade deal didn't suit our needs or our vision for the team moving forward. Being aggressive meant actually sitting in the room, or on the phone, or whatever, and hammering out a deal that worked for us. This offseason, as far as I can tell, we have said no to more trades than we normally would have, because they just did not work for us. Now, some teams have come back with better offers and some teams have just moved on, but we have stuck to our vision, stuck to our plan and I think we have come out of each trade so far with a far better stance and position than we did coming into it, and it will stay like that moving forward this season".

PENRITH, NSW - The Penrith Lions have, following the end of the preseason and the league requirement to reduce the roster size to 53 players, the team have released the following players from their contracts.

LDE Gavin Blair, FB Vernon Davis, LG Michael A. Kiellor, LDE Pedro Lee, SLB Michael McDonald, TE Anthony Rodriguez and WR Troy Yang

The organisation thanks these players for their services and commitment to the team throughout their time and wishes them all the best in their careers moving forward.