Recently reports emerged that the Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Storm had entered a bidding war for the services of Penrith legend Mark Geyer’s son Mavrik, who had excelled at Jersey Flegg level for the Mountain Men in 2021; however, it seems the war is over ad there is a clear victor.

The Australian’s Brent Read has revealed that the Panthers have fought off the advances made by Melbourne, and have secured their local talent.

“He [Mavrik Geyer] had to make a difficult phone call to Craig Bellamy this week,” said Read via the Rush Hour with MG and Liam

“I spoke to him about that phone call yesterday and he said it’s one of the hardest he’s had to make, but said that Craig was really good and that he would’ve loved to have had him here [at the Storm], but ultimately he’s grown up dreaming about making his debut for Penrith and that was too hard to resist in the end.

“He’s committed his future to Penrith, young Mavrik Geyer.”

Mark Geyer would go on to confirm the statement made by Read on the same program.

“Ready’s 100 per cent right,” said Geyer.

“It was a hard decision for him [Mavrik] to make, especially when you’ve got Craig Bellamy, one of the best coaches to coach in the game wanting your services, and the emotion of it I suppose got the better of him and he wanted to be a Penrith boy for the next couple of years anyway.

“He is born and bred here and played all his junior reps at Penrith so I think he has made the right decision.”

Young Mavrik has been touted as a back-rower, who in 2021 scored four tries, made three line breaks, got four line-break assists, averaged 124 running metres per game and made 217 tackles for an efficiency rate of 86.1% for Penrith’s Jersey Flegg side.

It will be interesting to see whether or not he can break into the Panthers’ first-grade side and make his NRL debut next season, especially because second-rower Kurt Capewell is off to the Brisbane Broncos in 2022.