You could have been forgiven for concluding, during the weeks Penrith spent at the bottom of the NRL ladder, that the wheels were falling off and the juggernaut would grind to a halt.

It was a case of forgetting about adding to their four consecutive premierships. The once-mighty Panthers appeared in danger of going from first to worst.

The engine may have been spluttering, but with the benefit of hindsight, it wasn’t beyond repair. It was just a case of replacing key cogs and recalibrating.

And now, here we are, a month out from the NRL finals, and the machine Ivan Cleary has built and rebuilt is humming along ominously.

After an inexplicable five-game losing streak between rounds two and six, Penrith have won nine games straight to surge into the top four.

They’ve done it without Jarome Luai and James Fisher-Harris – cornerstones in their four grand final triumphs – as well as Sunia Turuva, who featured in two of those victories and was their leading tryscorer last year.

Ivan and Nathan Cleary have steered Penrith to four consecutive premierships. Can they make it five?Credit: Getty Images

Following the departures in previous seasons of Matt Burton, Api Koroisau, Stephen Crichton, Viliame Kikau and Spencer Leniu, it was widely assumed that the loss of “Romey”, “Fish” and “Tito” would prove the tipping point.

Instead, the Panthers have spent the past nine weeks reaffirming the theory that nobody is irreplaceable.

How have they done it?

The first step was a quick fix that was in stark contrast to Penrith’s grow-your-own policy. They went out and signed three strategic recruits –........

© The Sydney Morning Herald