3 minute read
Liam Martin's mum's petrol bill to drive to Sydney and watch her son play every week tallies into the thousands, but Penrith's success makes it all worthwhile.
Liam Martin knows there's no point offering to pick up his mother's petrol bill for the hundreds of kilometres she drives to attend every Penrith home game.
"She'd refuse. If I even tried, she'd say no," he told AAP.
"Even when we go for brekkie and stuff like that, you try and pay and she'll blow up and say, 'No, no, you're letting me stay with you, you're letting me come to games, let me pay'."
For years, Martin's mother Maxine has been making the four-and-a-half hour trip from the family home in Barmedman - near Temora - to watch her superstar son turn out for the all-conquering Panthers.
The journey tops five hours if Ms Martin is travelling from her work as a librarian and history teacher at West Wyalong High School, where Liam was school captain and dux in 2015.
"I enjoyed my HSC and that was her, she drove that. All my brothers and sisters did pretty well (at school)," Martin said.
"I was pretty good at history, I loved history, which probably surprises most people."
So unwavering is her dedication that the school allows Ms Martin to take half-days off work to travel to Friday night games.
A return trip from Penrith to the family home is around 900km, requiring some 100 litres of fuel for a car burning 11.1 litres per 100km - the average for Australian passenger vehicles.
Do that 11 times for each of Penrith's regular-season home games and eight more times for away games in NSW and the annual petrol bill would nudge $3500 - if fuel costs on average $1.80 per litre.
And that's without factoring in tolls, or the finals appearances that have become inevitable for the Panthers across five years as premiership heavyweights.
As those years have gone by, the time, money and love behind his mother's dedication have come to mean even more to Martin.
"It's so special," the second-rower said.
"The older I get, the more I appreciate it, how much sacrifice she's done, not just for myself but all my brothers and sisters. She's an incredible woman."
Martin's family will watch eagerly as Liam hunts a fourth consecutive premiership when Penrith face Melbourne in Sunday's grand final.
The match will be Martin's first marking up against Shawn Blore since the Penrith junior joined Melbourne for a breakout season on the left edge.
Blore missed selection when the Storm hosted Penrith in round one and Martin was suspended from the rematch at BlueBet Stadium in round 24.
"I'm really excited to come up against Blorey. He was obviously here for a bit and they had big raps on him," said Martin.
"I'm just happy to see him playing well. I knew that Melbourne would be a perfect fit for him."