Stat Attack: Griffin exits with one of NRL era's best records
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Two come-from-behind wins in as many weeks, sitting in fifth place and on the cusp of a third straight finals appearance from his three seasons at the foot of the mountains.
Anthony Griffin was considered good enough to earn a two-year contract extension last October but now he has been shown the door by Penrith less than a year later.
He leaves by way of "mutual agreement", with Penrith deeming their prodigious young roster has learned all they can under his stewardship and would not be delivering a premiership with Griffin at the helm.
But he still leaves with one of the best records of a departing coach in the NRL era.
Since arriving at the end of 2015 Griffin's record with the Panthers clipboard stands at 72 games for 42 wins and 30 losses, an overall win percentage of 58.3%.
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Since the NRL era began in 1998, Wayne Bennett left the Broncos and the Dragons with a superior record to Griffin's at Penrith, and Des Hasler did the same in a messy Manly break-up just weeks after their 2011 premiership.
Both did so of their own accord. Griffin does not, and neither did Ricky Stuart from the Roosters (2006) or Chris Anderson at Melbourne (2001), the only other men with better winning percentages than Griffin as they left a club after more than one season.
(An asterisk applies to Jason Taylor's 17-game record with Parramatta in 2006, when he took them to the finals as caretaker coach before moving aside for Michael Hagan the following year).
Unlike Griffin, Stuart left Bondi having taken the Tricolours to the three straight grand final appearances between 2002 and 2004.
By the time of his axing, Stuart was coming back down the other side of the NRL mountain with the Roosters missing the top eight in his last two seasons at the club.
Anderson too came to a "mutual agreement" with Melbourne just two years after engineering the club's maiden premiership, just weeks after telling the Storm board "if you want me out you will have to sack me" in the midst of a disastrous start to the 2001 season.
Melbourne fell out of finals contention for the next two seasons under Mark Murray before Craig Bellamy took charge.
Griffin meanwhile arguably leaves Penrith in better condition than any coach has a club in recent memory – with a finals-bound side, the majority of whom are signed long-term with their best years ahead of them.
