‘No one’s crying for us’: Ivan Cleary declares we haven't seen the real Panthers after the premiers suffer another shock loss

Penrith’s premiership defence hit another hurdle on Thursday night, but their coach was bullish after the loss to Souths and declared the real Panthers haven’t emerged yet in 2025.

The Panthers have endured their worst start to a season since 2016, but coach Ivan Cleary has warned his rivals “you haven’t seen the real us yet” after they slumped to another shock loss to Souths.

The 28-18 loss was their third defeat from the opening four matches, with the defending premiers blown off the park in the first half as they walked from the field down by 28 points.

It was one of the worst halves of footy they’ve ever played under Cleary, with Penrith completing just six sets as their usually miserly defence capitulated for the third week in a row.

Dylan Edwards and Nathan Cleary should be back next week in a huge boost for the Panthers who are coming off a shock loss to Souths. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

They will get Nathan Cleary back next week and should also have Dylan Edwards available, with the four-time premiers expected to make a statement against the struggling Cowboys despite their poor start.

“I’m sure no one’s crying for us, but you haven’t seen the real us yet,” Cleary declared, not wanting to use his side’s roster turnover as an excuse.

“Once you do, you can start making judgements on that.

“I have to take responsibility in how we’re playing to this point.

“Spirit is still there, which is good, but it’s a bit hard. We haven’t got any rhythm in our game yet for whatever reason. But we’re going to need to find it pretty soon.

“Once we get that, we’ll have a better idea of how we’re going.”

As bad as they were in the first half, Penrith dominated the second 40 minutes and could have cut the gap to 10 points with 18 minutes remaining had prop Moses Leota not been denied what looked to be a try.

Leota charged through the defence to score next to the uprights, but referee Ashley Klein ruled he lost it, with the Bunker backing up his call to kill off the mountain men’s momentum.

No-try for the Panthers... was this a harsh call?

📺 Watch #NRLSouthsPanthers LIVE on ch.502 or stream on Kayo: https://t.co/w6jwdIZ5ne⁰✍️ BLOG https://t.co/cITsaVikLn⁰🔢 MATCH CENTRE https://t.co/VdbFvrx9LPpic.twitter.com/3wGaPvfGjY

— Fox League (@FOXNRL) March 27, 2025

“I honestly thought it would have been a try, and it would have been very handy. But maybe that was the night,” Cleary said.

“At the end of the day, we cost ourselves with too many points in the first half and then things need to go your way. You’ve just got to get those calls.

“It definitely killed our momentum a bit, but at the end of the day, we’re responsible and I’m responsible for the performance.

“The first half was comical at some points.”

Skipper Isaah Yeo refused to use the no try ruling as an excuse, with the workhorse lock forward more concerned with his side’s first half where fill-in spine members Daine Laurie and Trent Toelau struggled.

“It probably didn’t help, but we put ourselves in that position,” Yeo said.

“We shot ourselves in the foot in that first half. Sometimes when you put yourselves in that position, you don’t get the rub of the green because you haven’t earned it.

“It would’ve been nice to get it because we had some wind in our sails at that point, but the damage was done, and that was the disappointing part.”

Originally published as ‘No one’s crying for us’: Ivan Cleary declares we haven't seen the real Panthers after the premiers suffer another shock loss