“And they’ve developed a great performance around that kind of culture. It really works for Penrith. They’ve had an outstanding team for the past three years,but I don’t think you’d see that at Parramatta.”

Ryan Matterson,who opted toaccept a three-match ban rather than a $4000 fine for a crusher tackle,also addressed the issue on Tuesday night.

“At the end of the day,winners can do whatever they want,” Matterson said.

“They have been the best side over the last couple of years and if they want to celebrate like that,they can.

“I saw it this morning. We haven’t spoken about it. It was pretty humorous looking at it. It did make me laugh.

“If you take ourselves out of the situation and watch it as a whole,it was funny.”

Parramatta’s critics have suggested the club’s premiership window had closed,pointing to the departures of Reed Mahoney,Papali’i,Marata Niukore,Oregon Kaufusi,Tom Opacic and Ray Stone. The future of star halves Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown are also clouded beyond next season.

When on stage to accept the Ken Thornett medal,Lane rubbished suggestions the Eels had missed their window and reiterated those sentiments when speaking to reporters shortly afterwards.

“Yeah. I hear media always talk about this same point,so I just had to address it in front of all of Parra stakeholders tonight,” Lane said.

“Because I know they’re thinking the same thing and everyone internally is thinking the same thing. We have a great culture and it’s not about losing a few players here or there. That’s what dynasties are built on,the culture within the club. We have some great systems and development of players coming through. I am very confident we will still be a powerhouse going forward.”

Matterson added:“No way. We have got a good young crop coming through.

“They train the house down and you can see in NSW Cup they played outstanding. We don’t have many old boys there,it’s mainly young boys.

“We’ve got some great talent coming through and we look forward to the preseason ahead.”

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