NRL 2021: Ivan Cleary backs Tevita Pangai to succeed at Panthers, Willie Mason’s role in Bulldogs signing
Talent has never been Tevita Pangai Jr’s problem, but he struggled for consistency at Brisbane — now he’s a Panther, Ivan Cleary is hoping that will change.
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Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has backed the Panthers culture to get the best out of Tevita Pangai Jr during the fiery forward’s short stint with the club.
Pangai Junior, who has joined Penrith for the remainder of the season before linking up with Canterbury for the next three years, has always had plenty of talent but through the 25-year-old’s career consistency has been difficult to find.
The Tongan international will only be a Panther for a few months, but Cleary will take personal responsibility in helping Pangai Junior find his best football.
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“That’s a challenge we all have to embrace and I’m going to have to take responsibility for personally,” Cleary said.
“I guess that’s where our culture will be tested and culture will multiply talent if it’s good. Tevita Pangai Junior is a very talented young man and he’s a good age for us, he’s 25 with about 100 games under his belt.
“For a short period of time in our environment I’m confident he can really add something for us and we might be able to help him as well.”
It’s been a rollercoaster saga for Penrith and Pangai Jr, with the move seemingly collapsing before it was confirmed earlier this week.
Cleary met with Pangai Jr in the lead up to Origin II to first discuss a potential move, but salary cap machinations appeared to hose down the switch before James Fisher-Harris’ unavailability due to the birth of his first child breathed new life into the deal.
“I just thought it might be a good fit. As the week’s progressed it looked like it just wasn’t going to work out,” Cleary said.
“We only made the decision 24 hours before we finalised it, we’d pulled out before that, it was a pretty crazy operation there.
“He needed a deal for next year for it to work and at that point he didn’t have one, so it looked like it wasn’t going to work.
“But then he organised a deal with the Bulldogs, that box was ticked, and the pending absence of Fish had something to do with it. In the end we were able to move a few things around and pull the trigger.
“He was extremely keen to come, that was part of what we were attracted to as well.”
Fisher-Harris, the club’s most important forward and their bedrock in the middle of the field, is expected to be out until at least Round 22 after exiting the bubble and returning to Sydney.
Cleary said the Panthers were doing everything in their power to keep the Kiwi giant fit and firing ahead of his return.
“Childbirth is not an operation you can always bank on, so hopefully it all goes well and he and his family can get up here as soon as possible,” Cleary said.
“We’re very keen for Fish to get into a quarantine environment where he can train, not just for his physical wellbeing but his mental wellbeing as well.
“He’s a trainaholic at the best of times, he’s already feeling quite low about leaving the team.”
CALL OF DUTY: HOW MASON HELPED DOGS SNARE PANGAI JR
—Dean Ritchie
It was the phone call from a Bulldogs legend that could inspire Tevita Pangai Jr to become “one of the most damaging forwards to ever play the game”.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal former Canterbury, NSW and Kangaroos forward Willie Mason reached out to Pangai – a long-time friend – to tell him he “hadn’t been coached the right way over the last three or four years”.
Mason also told Pangai Jr that he would never play rep footy or finals if he joined one of his other two suitors, St George Illawarra or Wests Tigers.
After offering a glowing endorsement of Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett and the club’s board, Mason told Pangai to join Canterbury, the three-year deal being finalised on Wednesday.
While wanting to play down his role in luring Pangai to Belmore, Mason said: “I want to see the best out of him because, potentially, he could be one of the most damaging forwards to ever play the game.
“I made a phone call and said: ‘Look, T, you’re 25 years old and I just don’t think you’ve been coached the right way over the last three or four years’.
“I said: ‘You should be playing Origin and for Australia. I know you love playing for Tonga but you’ve already done that. Your next thing is that Blues jersey and then a green and gold jersey. You’re not even in the talks’.
“I told him: ‘Your two options were St George and Wests Tigers’. I told him if he went there he would never, ever see a rep jersey or play finals in his whole career.
“He’s a wrecking ball. You get him in the right frame of mind, you see what he can do. He’s just very inconsistent – he will destroy teams once every five or six games.
“If he puts together 12 games like that he will play for Australia. He has so much potential and I don’t want to see him waste it.
“T is the most damaging left-side back-rower. He’s up there with David Fifita but I think he’s tougher than Fifita. I question Fifita’s toughness in those big games where Pangai loves that shit. You can put him in the middle, put him on the left edge, he’s a left-arm carry, left foot step, right palm.”
Bulldogs chairman John Khoury revealed the role Mason played in pushing Pangai Jr to Canterbury.
“I know Willie has a friendship with Tevita and he put in a good word in regards to where the club was and where we were headed,” Khoury said.
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“Willie told Tevita that the Bulldogs were a club on the rise and it was a great club when it was pumping, what happens with our passionate members and fans and that he would be coming to a good place.
“Willie also vouched for Trent, vouched for me and vouched for the board. That certainly helped and I want to call that out and acknowledge it. I know Willie told Tevita he should join us.”
Mason has an enormous opinion of Barrett and reckons his former club are finals bound in 2022 through the recruitment of Pangai, Josh Addo-Carr, Matt Burton, Brent Naden, Matt Dufty and possibly Paul Vaughan.
“Tevita’s got all the attributes to be a gun – he just needs someone inside him and then there’s Burton,” Mason said. “The club is heading in the right direction so when I spoke to Tevita, I told him I just wanted the best out of him with his footy.
“He has been playing lock, right-side back row, in the middle, left-side back row. Next year, with Matt Burton, Pangai, Naden, ‘Fox’ and Dufty around the back, you’re talking a dynamic left edge.
“I know Baz is a great coach and Gus (Gould) is a great club builder. He knows the culture of the club. They have all the right people there and they want to see the club go forward and I told ‘T’ that.
“When you’re successful at that club, everything goes well. Baz is building something and I told Tevita to be part of it. We haven’t had a cult figure there since my man Sonny (Bill Williams). The fans just want a bunch of dogs.”
Mason looks set to have a mentoring role at Canterbury from next season.
“Mentoring, skills, just being around the club and around the players, driving the culture of the club. I know what that club is built on,” Mason said.
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