``Everyone would recognise one of the Penrith rugby league players. This is the state of promotion. We lack even simple things such as billboards and radio announcements.''

And this is the state of despair of Penrith president John Pinson: ``We can't go on the way we are,'' he said. ``Parramatta aren't going on the way they are.''

The 130-year-old club that won premierships in the '70s and '80s was beaten by up to 100 points this year.

The Two Blues have taken the radical, some say desperate, step of moving to Castle Hill. ``We're very similar,'' Pinson said of Penrith's plight.

Penrith took the wooden spoon in the Shute Shield first-grade competition this year. Hodges points out they had a horror run with up to 20 players sidelined with injury.

There was a time when Penrith's future looked promising. NSW Rugby had four development officers on the ground and the result was Penrith could field five colts teams.

Then NSW Rugby ran into financial trouble; the officers were withdrawn. This year Penrith fielded one colts team.

Pinson said NSW Rugby had to make a decision on whether it wanted to support Penrith or let it wither.

He was speaking the day before a meeting with Australian Rugby development representatives, where de and Hodges had a victory: its two development officers in the west would concentrate more on Penrith, at the cost of the Parramatta and Campbelltown areas.

Hodges said the answer to Penrith's plight was simple: dollars and cents, so it could move into primary schools, have gala days, markets and promote the game.

He pointed out the relativities: multi-million-dollar contracts for players such as Lote Tuqiri yet little money for development officers at a fraction of the cost.