Ivan Cleary defends coaching credibility after perceive ‘personal attacks’
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has launched a staunch defence of his coaching credibility after perceive ‘personal attacks’ from Paul Kent.
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Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has launched a staunch defence of his coaching credibility despite a disastrous week for the coach of the team at the foot of the mountains.
Cleary made the stunning decision to call NRL360 co-host Paul Kent after perceived personal attacks Kent made in a column written for The Daily Telegraph.
In the column, Kent labelled Penrith’s loss to the bottom-placed Bulldogs as the “dumbest” coaching performance of the year as Cleary returned to the attacking style that failed them at the start of the season.
Kent wrote that Penrith’s star playmaker James Maloney was coached out of the game with their season on the line.
And while Cleary said he “totally agreed our attack was poor”, he felt the dissection of the Panthers’ gameplan was an attack on his credibility.
“I did feel there were a couple of personal things in there,” Cleary told Kent.
“Statements like ‘dumb’ and the way I did or didn’t use James Maloney ... taking James Maloney out of the game plan would be dumb and I don’t consider to have done that.
“On the attack I totally agree. I said during the press conference that it wasn’t good. To question our attack was fair.
“But I did think we were getting better after a poor start during the year and that game last week was an anomaly.”
Kent argued it isn’t only Clear’s on-field decisions hurting the club, with former State of Origin winner Reagan Campbell-Gillard set to join Waqa Blake and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak at new clubs despite signing a six-year extension under Penrith former coach Anthony Griffin.
Cleary seemed to wipe his hands of the alleged roster mistakes.
“It’s not my roster I’m just part of recruitment and retention committee made up of the heads of club,” Cleary said.
“Certainly my decision carries weight, but I’m just trying to get the best value out of the players we have and the cap spend.”
Cleary was pressed on the alleged halftime confrontation between himself and referee Ashley Klein during Penrith’s loss to Canberra.
While Cleary maintains he was talking to captain James Tamou, not an official, discrepancies still remain in his versions of the event.
“I get emotional when my integrity is being questioned and I felt that was the case in this situation. It was a halftime situation in the tunnel ... I won’t be in the tunnel again,” Cleary said.
Originally published as Ivan Cleary defends coaching credibility after perceive ‘personal attacks’
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