By Panthers Media

Penrith Panthers and Wests Tigers will play for the inaugural Royce Simmons Cup this Sunday at CommBank Stadium.

With Royce having close ties with both clubs, the perpetual trophy has been named in his honour, and will be played for each year.

The inaugural match will be held at CommBank Stadium on Sunday, while home grounds will alternate each year.

The premiership-wining Hall of Famer played 238 games across 12 seasons for Panthers and later coached the club for eight years. He went on to spend eight seasons at Wests Tigers as an assistant coach to Tim Sheens, helping the club win its maiden NRL premiership in 2005.

Funds raised at the game will be directed to the Royce Simmons Foundation to assist with further research into dementia.

Royce was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and he managed to raise close to $600,000 through Royce’s Big Walk – a 300km journey from Gooloogong to Penrith.

TOSS THE COIN

One lucky fan from either club will have the chance to toss the coin before kick-off with funds raised going to the Royce Simmons Foundation.

The successful bidder will keep the commemorative coin which has been produced for the match, as well as meet both team captains and be a part of the official match-day photo.

Bids for the coin toss can be made until 12:00am AEST on Friday, 15th July 2022.