Disappearing halves leave Panthers’ plan at sixes and sevens

FIRST Te Maire Martin left, then Matt Moylan followed. Nathan Cleary might be the next to go — what is going on at Penrith?

Phil Gould Phil Gould has absolute authority at Penrith. Picture: Brett Costello

PENRITH’S famous five-year plan, about to enter its seventh season, must not include halves.

This season the Panthers have released Te Maire Martin, once considered one of the bright ones.

They also released Matt Moylan. He left for Cronulla just a year after the club signed him to a five-year deal and regarded him as the cornerstone of their future.

And Nathan Cleary might be the next to go.

This week Cleary’s father, Wests Tigers coach Ivan Cleary, told NRL.com plans are back on the table for father and son to work together.

“Basically we’re both coming to the opinion that we’d like to play together. It’s just a question of timing really,” Ivan Cleary said.

Could Nathan and Ivan Cleary work together one day?

“He’s still got two years to go at the Panthers and I think that’s good for him. He’s not in a hurry to decide that, but we both realise that this situation is a pretty unique opportunity.

“I was always conscious of never wanting to put him in a position that compromises him being up front.

“But the further (his career) is going I’m getting more confident it won’t be a problem. But we’re not thinking about it too much right now. Probably in 12 months time it will be more relevant.”

Artwork: Scott “Boo” Bailey

Like everything in rugby league, the interest is more what Cleary can’t say than what he did.

Nathan Cleary is contracted until the end of 2019 and unable to negotiate with rival clubs until November 1 next year. Then he begins the final season of his contract.

Ivan, as the Tigers coach, is unable to talk to his own son about his future.

But Nathan still lives at home with mum and dad and that doesn’t stop father and son from talking generally about football and what that might include.

Not that Ivan will be the only coach interested in Nathan when he is available. It probably hasn’t escaped the Roosters’ notice that Nathan comes of contract on the first day their latest investment, Cooper Cronk, walks into retirement.

Whether they like it or not the Panthers are already in a battle to retain Cleary. And they might be losing it.

Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary

You wonder what is going on at the Panthers.

Phil Gould, the general manager of football, has absolute authority at the club. He continually gets lacerated for his “five-year plan” to win a premiership even though he actually said it would take “half a decade” to get the salary cap in order which, most presumed, also meant it would have them in premiership contention.

It was welcoming news at the time. Finally the club was going to prepare for long-term success.

Yet in that time Gould has sacked Ivan Cleary because he took a look at him at a press conference after Penrith played Parramatta in Darwin and decided he looked “tired”. The Penrith board did not know Cleary was sacked until they read about it.

Being sleepy was a new one when it came to sacking coaches. Most clubs would have tossed in some spending money and sent the coach on a holiday and told him not to come back until the new year.

Gould and Cleary were already butting heads, though. Cleary wanted to release Jamie Soward and James Segeyaro but Gould denied him. Gould then released them the following season, after he sacked Cleary.

Phil Gould has absolute authority at Penrith. Picture: Brett Costello

Cleary wanted to keep Api Koroisau but Gould released him. There were a number of disagreements about roster management.

Gould had always stated that his intention was to get the club in such a place it would make his job redundant.

It just might have been.

There was tension between them and Gould won.

Still, the club trusted Gould’s decision because he was building towards something. Successful clubs plan for the long term. It’s hard to see how that still exists.

Moylan is 26 and Martin is 22. Yet they are gone. James Maloney was bought to replace Moylan and he is 31. It makes for an odd future if you are planning for long-term success.

It leaves Cleary as the future of the club and yet we saw him exposed in the playoffs this year when he was left with no Plan B in the game plan when Brisbane refused to surrender their tryline.

At the time, Moylan was stood down because he had “personal” issues.

Matt Moylan left for Cronulla just a year after the Panthers signed him to a five-year deal. Picture: Toby Zerna

“Personal issues”, or words to that effect, are a euphemism for mental-welfare issues, which we also know are phrases increasingly being used by clubs and players to discourage further examination.

Don’t ask, don’t pry, you just might tip our guy over the edge. It’s a Get Out Of Jail Free card for clubs with internal trouble.

Moylan has told friends his reasons for wanting out were nothing more than he could not stand Anthony Griffin any longer.

He was offended at the insinuation he had mental-health issues and now he has landed at Cronulla after he stuck solid on his refusal to work with coach Griffin, who Gould appointed to replace Cleary without interviewing anybody else.

Te Maire Martin left Penrith to join the Cowboys.

Martin was let go because Griffin believed he was too small and not tough enough to play in the NRL.

He went to North Queensland and slipped in immediately. He was a solid performer in the Cowboys’ unlikely drive to a grand final appearance and on Saturday will run out as the starting five-eighth in New Zealand’s World Cup quarter-final against Fiji.

Individually, all these decisions and actions can be justified.

Collectively, it begins to look a little shaky.

Salary cap management is a da Vinci notebook, a mix of science and art. Everybody wins and loses, the trick being to win more than you lose.

It’s hard to see the Panthers are moving forward here, or whether they have been for some time..

Originally published as Disappearing halves leave Panthers’ plan at sixes and sevens