NRL finals 2022: Ivan Cleary hits back after loitering Panthers claim raises alarm bells for Rabbitohs
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has been forced to defend his star-studded team over accusations of foul play designed to protect his son, Nathan.
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Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has hit back at South Sydney, labelling claims his side are using illegal block plays to protect halfback Nathan Cleary as ‘groundhog day’.
A year after then Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett complained to the NRL about Penrith employing tactics to shield Cleary, South Sydney officials have again raised concerns about a similar ploy.
This time, Rabbitohs management claim Penrith players have been loitering in the ruck to deliberately shield Cleary from kick-chasers.
They are calling on referee Ashley Klein to strictly police tactics in Saturday night’s preliminary final.
“It seems like groundhog day… I don’t have a take on it. That’s exactly what happened last year. I’m not worried about it,” Cleary said.
Pushed by The Daily Telegraph on whether these latest claims were a deliberate attempt by South Sydney to gain an advantage, Cleary responded: “Let’s talk about it. Well maybe, I don’t know, I haven’t read the story.
“I don’t know anything about it. What I do know is that Ashley Klein is an experienced referee. He’ll ref the game how he sees it. It’s all part of the game.”
South Sydney are claiming, that in week one of the finals, Parramatta players Junior Paulo and Isaiah Papali’i appeared to be impeded from getting at Nathan Cleary by Panthers players James Fisher-Harris and Isaah Yeo, who were standing in the ruck area.
This allows Nathan Cleary to kick pressure free.
But Cleary rejected any suggestion that his side had used illegal plays to protect son Nathan from the opposition defense while trying kicking.
“We haven’t been penalised this year, I don’t think… so, I guess no, we have been doing all right,” Cleary said.
It’s understood the NRL won’t be instructing their referees to clamp down on any particular area during the big weekend matches.
Panthers’ protection racket raises alarm bells at Souths
By Dean Ritchie and Phil Rothfield
South Sydney has spotted Penrith using what it believes are illegal block plays to protect star halfback Nathan Cleary and called on referee Ashley Klein to strictly police the ploy in Saturday night’s preliminary final.
Rabbitohs management claim Penrith players have been loitering in the ruck to deliberately shield Cleary from kick-chasers.
Souths bosses are refusing to go public with their concerns — or lodge an official report with the NRL — but the club is worried about the tactic.
In week one of the finals, Parramatta players Junior Paulo and Isaiah Papali’i appeared to be impeded from getting at Cleary by Panthers players James Fisher-Harris and Isaah Yeo, who were standing in the ruck area.
This, Souths claim, allows Cleary to kick pressure-free.
Well-placed sources have told News Corp that Souths’ coaching staff are well aware of the strategy and desperately hope Klein intervenes if it is repeated in the grand final qualifier.
Souths also believe Penrith hold down the tackled players longer than any other club in the NRL.
The blocking drama comes a year after then Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett complained about Penrith employing similar antics.
Bennett even claimed some Penrith players used the move in State of Origin last year.
The NRL sends out a document to all clubs each season outlining how referees will interpret the rules.
Under a headline of Obstruction at the Play the Ball (eg Sleeper, Wall etc), it reads: “Attacking players who loiter in and around the play the ball to block the path of defenders are to be penalised for the obstruction if, in the opinion of the referee or video referee, these players are deemed to in any way obstruct defenders.”
Last year, Bennett’s spray came after Panthers coach Ivan Cleary called on the NRL to protect his son and halfback, Nathan. Bennett sprung Penrith’s allegedly blocking his defenders three times in a round 23 game in 2022.
“The issue is the use of blockers last time we played Penrith, and it’s happened before,” Bennett said. “It happened in State of Origin involving their players as well last year when I coached.
“They’re setting up blocks. The bottom line is we haven’t been able to get near Nathan and his kicks because we’re getting blocked. Our kick chases are getting blocked by illegal blockers.
“I‘ve asked for some direction from the NRL in recent times as to what our position was and what was allowed and what wasn’t allowed. There’s no doubt it’s illegal what they do.
“You need to go look at the vision, it’s there for all to see. They didn’t get close to Nathan. You’re allowed to have blockers in the game but not illegal. They’re interfering with our line.”
The NRL won’t be instructing their referees to clamp down on any particular area during the big weekend matches.
Kung-Fu Panther kicks contract talks to the side
-Fatima Kdouh
Panthers star Brian To’o and his partner Moesha have a knack for stealing the show.
First when Moesha graced last year’s Dally M red carpet in a Samoan Tapa dress, then when the Panthers star dropped to one knee to propose to her in the midst of Penrith’s grand final victory celebrations.
The photogenic couple did it again last week when they donned matching traditional Chinese outfits to the club’s presentation night.
For To’o, the Changshan was a chance to celebrate his Chinese heritage.
“I have a bit of Chinese in me. I asked mum about my Chinese heritage, her mum’s dad was Chinese … my partner loves to dress up in our cultural clothing,” To’o said.
“We love to celebrate our culture and be proud of our culture. She asked me if I wanted to celebrate my Asian heritage and it was pretty mad to do it and match up with her at the presentation night.”
These days, when strangers stop To’o on the streets of Penrith, football isn’t the first thing on their mind.
“There are a lot of Filipino people that come up to me and ask me if I am half Filipino. I don’t know why, I think it’s my smile,” To’o said. “People also mistake me for it, I get asked a lot.”
But this isn’t the first time To’o has tapped into his Asian background. He quickly built a cult following in the NRL thanks to his kung fu warm-up routine before games.
The St Marys junior has spoken in the past about the influence of martial arts, and his admiration for the likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, has had on his rugby league career.
He was introduced to league after a junior coach spotted a young To’o practising his kung fu kicks at the park while training his older brother.
To’o plans to delve further into his Chinese heritage by learning to speak Mandarin.
“I would love to start learning Mandarin. I tried to learn a little bit while I was in school but I was terrible at it, it’s very hard,” he said. “Even the basics were very hard to learn. I only speak a little bit of Samoan too, that’s definitely something I need to work on.
“I can barely speak English, I’m struggling everywhere.”
To’o will have to put any language lessons to good use when his contract negotiations ramp up in December. To’o headlines a slew of Penrith stars, including Stephen Crichton, Liam Martin and Spencer Leniu, about to hit the open market, where they can field offers from rival clubs from November 1.
It’s unexplored territory for the NSW Origin representative.
“I haven’t had to think about it before or be in a situation where I’ve had to test the market,” To’o said. “Whatever happens, I’m sure myself, my team, my family will decide from there.”
Securing his family’s future will likely be on the forefront of To’o’s mind. He recently purchased his first property, a house in Sydney’s west for parents Fati and Fale.
But with a win against South Sydney on Saturday night to put Penrith into a third consecutive grand final, To’o wants to put talk on hold until the season is over and until after his wedding in December.
“I’m trying not to think about it too much, I know November 1 is coming but I’m leaving it up to my manager to deal with it until the season is over and when it’s time to talk about it, I’ll start looking into it,” To’o said.
“I think it might have to wait until after everything, the World Cup, the wedding. It’s exciting but I want to focus on the task at hand before anything else.”
The Bunnies charged with silencing Penrith’s ‘hitman’
-David Riccio
South Sydney risk being “kicked to death” unless they go out and “whack” Penrith superstar Nathan Cleary in Saturday night’s preliminary final.
But getting to the Panthers halfback and dominating him is proving a tough task for teams trying to stop Cleary from giving them the type of nightmares Parramatta’s Waqa Blake endured in the first week of the finals.
For the Rabbitohs, standing between them and the Panthers maestro, and a date in next week’s grand final, are Cleary’s forward pack bodyguards.
Led by the broad shoulders of hard man James Fisher-Harris.
“To beat Penrith, you have to bash them. But Fisher-Harris and Isaah Yeo are very good at protecting him, no one can come near him,” former Rabbitohs enforcer Mark ‘Spudd’ Carroll told The Daily Telegraph.
“But this is do-or-die. You have got to come out of the line and whack him.
“You have to get the halfback, put pressure.
“If you give a penalty away, fine, but get him on the ground.
“As a kicker, he’s going to start thinking ‘shit, the next time I do this, I’m going to get hit’.
“If they don’t, it opens the passage for someone like Nathan to put up his kicks and destroy people.”
Rabbitohs and Queensland forward Jai Arrow has already put his hand up to get “stuck in” to disrupt Cleary’s kicking game, something the Maroons to perfection did by bashing him into submission in State of Origin I this year.
“Taking time away from him will be vital to us and vital to us playing down their end of the field,’’ Arrow said. “Because in the past, Nathan has kicked us to death.
“He’s put us in a corner and we’ve found it very hard to even cross their 50-metre line, let alone get inside the 20-metre line and play some footy.
“I’m going to go out there and play my game, which is to be aggressive and get stuck in.
“I love that physicality of the game and I love getting in there and the niggle and all the fun things that come with it.”
PRESSURE TRENDING
Fox Sports Lab stats show Souths do indeed target Cleary.
In 2022, only Brisbane have been better than the Rabbitohs this season at heaping pressure on Penrith’s kicking game.
The Rabbitohs have averaged 10 kick pressures a game across the season but that figure rises sharply against Penrith.
In their two clashes with the defending premiers, Souths have pressured Penrith’s kicks — of which Cleary takes the most — 29 times, although they only made contact on seven occasions.
Preparing for Cleary’s aerial raid, Rabbitohs ace Latrell Mitchell gave an insight into the level of focus that the entire South Sydney line-up needed to dent the Panthers playmaker.
“I just sit out the back and try to catch his bombs,” Mitchell said.
“Us doing our job and focusing on the club and what we have to do, putting all our energy into that, is probably one way of stopping him.”
CAPTAIN’S RESPONSIBILITY
According to Carroll, skipper Cameron Murray is the man Souths should turn to in order to disrupt Cleary, explaining the Rabbitohs needed to find an alternate way to get past Fisher-Harris and Yeo, who often stand just off the ruck on the last tackle.
“It’s got to be Cameron Murray, he’s the captain. He has to lead the charge when it comes to stopping Cleary,” Carroll said.
“They need to get the quarterback, it’s as simple as that. Have an angle runner, like in the NFL you have to get someone to sack the quarterback. He’s their quarterback, and if he gets any of those kicks away, then look out.”
Parramatta failed to smother Cleary in week one of the finals, allowing the halfback to mount an aerial assault on Waqa Blake with his floating bombs, terrorising the Eels winger all night.
THE BODYGUARDS
Fijian powerhouse Viliame Kikau told The Daily Telegraph, the job of guarding Nathan falls on every Panthers forward.
“For us, that’s what we have been doing all along, protecting him,” Kikau said.
“The boys in the middle, like Fish (Fisher-Harris) know they will have to work a bit harder to protect him.
“But every team protects their quarterback and he is our quarterback.
“We know we need to protect him, all of us, wherever he is on the field or from whatever Souths have planned.”
Backrower Liam Martin, who lines up alongside Cleary in defence, vowed the pack would do “whatever we can to give him space and room to do what he does best”.
While Cleary knows he is a marked man on Saturday night, Martin not only backed the 24-year old to weather the hits, but dish out some punishment himself in defence.
One of the bigger halves in the competition, Cleary is also an accomplished defender.
Martin teased the Penrith skipper for adopting the moniker ‘The Hitman’ after monstering North Queensland forward Coen Hess back in 2020.
“He’s one of the best blokes to defend alongside. He’s a bigger body,” Martin said. “There was a game where he put on two decent shots and then after the game he was trying to call himself ‘The Hitman’.”
ROOKIE CHALLENGE
After just 25 NRL games, rookie Rabbitohs halfback Lachlan Ilias has been thrust into a dream duel with the game’s best playmaker.
The 22-year-old admits he is constantly trying to adopt elements of Cleary’s game.
“He takes control of the game and that is something I can keep watching,” Ilias said.
“He really takes control with his kicking and passing, he really dominates the ball. That is something I can learn from.”
DEFYING HISTORY
The Saturday night preliminary final showdown at Accor Stadium is also an opportunity for the Rabbitohs to do what many thought was impossible, by advancing to the grand final after finishing the regular season in seventh position.
“We’re in a preliminary final and no one gave us any chance in both semis we’ve played,’’ Arrow said.
“We’d finished seventh and had a bit of an up-and-down season.
“But it’s a new season now and we get a crack to go into the big one.
“And what is staying in front of us is the best and that‘s Penrith.
“We’re in the final four and with the strike that we have on our side, other sides will know that and they’ll be looking at that.
“All sides now have nothing to lose.
“It will be up to us to go out there and play footy.
“History shows that no one has won the comp from outside the four, but records are there to be broken. We’re looking to do that.’’
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