Elvy played 17 games for Penrith between 1998 and 1999, before he landed at the Bathurst Panthers in 2002 to help prop up the club midway through the season.

He would later go on to captain-coach the Group 10 club to back-to-back premier league titles from 2006-07.

Elvy said he's been impressed with how his former NRL side has played throughout 2020.

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"They've been really impressive. I think this has been building at the club for the past few years," he said.

"I think people expected the Panthers to be there or thereabouts and they've definitely shown that this year, with their youth and exciting style they're playing. They deserve to be there.

"Since when they built the centre of excellence, their junior teams coming through have been so successful in grand finals and they've got a lot of them there playing first grade."

Something that has notable about the Panthers squad is the number of players they have come from the Western region, including Isaah Yeo (Dubbo), Matt Burton (Dubbo), Brent Naden (Wellington), Billy Burns (Parkes) and Charlie Staines (Forbes).

And there's plenty of talent in the lower grades, especially from Bathurst, including Adam and Brad Fearnley, as well as Ash Cosgrove.

"They've got a really good relationship with the Western Rams and our academy squads," Elvy said.

"They give us a lot of resources and they're reaping the rewards of wanting kids to go there through our Rams system.

"It's been going for about 10 years and it's picked up a lot more in the past five years, with what Panthers do with the Rams and there's six or seven down their that are classed as Western Division players."

Elvy said it would be amazing to see a Bathurst junior crack into first grade one day in the future.

"Penrith are probably one of the best junior development clubs out of the 16 NRL clubs. That's been mentioned be a number of people outside of the club," he said.

"It would be great to see one of the Fearnley boys or someone from Bathurst to get that crack and I'm sure we're not too far off that. They're really good kids, the Fearnleys, and from all reports they're doing really well down there."

And come NRL grand final day on Sunday, Elvy is tipping Penrith, although he knows they'll have to be on their game against a classy Melbourne Storm outfit.

"I've got to tip Panthers but they're going to have be the best against the Storm and everyone knows how good the Storm can be," he said.

"They're the most consistent side of the past decade. If you slip up at any stage or have a poor 10-15 minutes, they'll catch you out.

"But if someone like Penrith can unsettle them, get away to a reasonable start, hang in the game and the nerves disappear, I think they're a fair chance."