Gould's Penrith legacy lives on in Cameron

But he does own a business card that defines his job as Penrith general manager, which previously reported to executive general manager that was Phil Gould.

Panthers officials have been working feverishly to spread Gould's responsibilities after his shock decision to make his role redundant nearly a fortnight ago.

And no role has changed more than that of new general manager Cameron, the man who designed a pathways system which churns out more NRL players than any other in the league.

"When I first came here late in 2012 and met 'Gus', he said to me: 'If I gave you a blank piece of paper and blank cheque, what would you do?'" Cameron tells AAP.

At the time, Penrith only had a handful of local players in their NRL squad.

Seven years on and three-quarters of the 24 players that have pulled on a Panthers jumper this year have come through their system.

"And I don't think people give Gus enough credit for that," said Cameron, who was the club's high performance manager.

While Gould failed to win a premiership in his eight years, this is his legacy.

"The Penrith district, with 8,500 juniors from 22 clubs, is the biggest junior league in the world," Cameron said.

"But not a lot of juniors or locally developed players were in the first grade squad at that point in time.

"There was a real effort to build good, strong programs that not only coached younger players, but coached younger coaches, to get them on the pathway."

Cameron, who spent 15 years as a development coach at Parramatta, is also the brains behind a country rugby league blueprint.

It was four years ago that the former under-20s coach produced a western region plan that includes Panthers academies in Dubbo, Forbes and Bathurst.

It involves the club not only putting boots on the ground in rural areas, but provides development and mentoring for the coaches.

More importantly, together with new pathways in their own backyard, it means the Panthers no longer spends money looking elsewhere for talent.

It's a production line that also means the club doesn't have to make a serious push into the free agency market each year.

It leaves Cameron - who is part of a retention committee set up last season - with the task of simply re-signing the best of the club's juniors.

"The whole way along, Gus was 100 per cent supportive of anything we've wanted to do, that I've wanted to do, for the pathways model," he said.

"I look back now and I've been fortunate enough to be mentored by one of the greatest ever people that's worked in rugby league. I feel really honoured.

"I spent a long time working with a really great coach (Brian Smith) at a previous club that helped me with my coaching background.

"Now I've been able to spend a long period of time at the Panthers under his tutelage from an administrative point of view.

"I couldn't tell you one piece of advice he's given me, because there's thousands that I've learnt along the way."

Australian Associated Press