NRL 2021: Panthers coach Ivan Cleary accuses Rabbitohs of poor discipline in lead-up to finals series

The war of words between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Penrith Panthers coaches has set the stage for a tense qualifying final.

The Panthers eliminated the Rabbitohs from last year’s finals series. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

The war of words between qualifying final foes Penrith and South Sydney has continued, with

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary accusing the Rabbitohs of poor defensive discipline.

Cleary said on Friday the lopsided penalty count in the sides' last clash (11-2 in Penrith’s favour) was evidence not of favouritism from the match officials but careless Rabbitohs defence.

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“You can only go off the evidence,” Cleary told reporters.

“They’re giving away plenty of penalties and their discipline hasn’t been where it needed to be.

“That speaks for itself, I think.”

The coach’s comments came just hours after his Souths counterpart Wayne Bennett accused Penrith of running “illegal” kick-chase blocks in the sides’ round 23 meeting. Bennett claimed the tactic, allegedly designed to protect playmaker Nathan Cleary, had escaped the referee’s notice.

“They are not going on a kick chase. They are moving sideways, backwards and they are making contact with shoulders and hands,” Bennett said.

“The bottom line is that we haven’t been able to get near Nathan and his kicks because our kick chasers are blocked by illegal blockers.”

Cleary had some strong words for the Rabbitohs. Image: Scott Davis/NRL Photos.

Cleary said Penrith’s status as a premiership heavyweight had sometimes brought the fire out in their opponents this season.

“I think we probably flew through the first half of last season under the radar a little bit. I don’t think we were ever expected to do much last year,” he said.

“This year’s obviously different.”

Given Saturday night’s game is a final, the Panthers are ready for the Rabbitohs to lift their intensity.

“It’s probably a good thing for us, really. We’re experienced now and finals games, big games, Origin games – a lot of our players played this year – all those types of big games always bring that little bit extra, here and there,” Cleary said.

“You’ve got to deal with that, and that’s just how it goes.

“It’s nothing too out of the ordinary. They’re all things why people love finals games so much.”

With their 25-12 win in round 23, the Panthers made it five victories in a row against South Sydney. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

In the absence of suspended star Latrell Mitchell, Bennett has named youngster Blake Taaffe at fullback.

Cleary said his side would not be distracted by speculation that Bennett might shift Cody Walker into the custodian role at the last minute.

“We’re ready for anything. It’s not going to change the way we play,” he said.

“Obviously, we’ve got to prepare like we always do, we always respect the opposition and prepare, go through their strengths and weaknesses.

“We’ve done that this week. We know how we play and what works for us best. That’s been our main focus this week.”

Cleary said while his team had learnt from last year’s finals heartbreak, this season had presented challenges of its own.

“I think this year’s in many respects different. It’s been a better year for us I think,” he said. “We’ve had a lot more adversity to get through and work through this year and different circumstances.

“There’s no doubt experience in finals games can really help you. We obviously got a fair bit of that last year with most of our team.”

The winner of Saturday’s qualifying final will advance to the preliminary finals, while the loser is set to meet either Parramatta or Newcastle in a sudden-death semi-final next weekend.