‘S*** player’: Ivan Cleary’s wife sledge is absolute perfection

A worse for wear Ivan Cleary has just dropped an instantly iconic NRL moment with a breakfast TV barrage that spared nobody.

Ivan Cleary spared nobody — even his wife.

The Panthers coach was in rare form on Monday morning while trying to sneak away from his club’s wild premiership celebrations following their epic Grand Final win over the Broncos.

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Son Nathan Cleary wrote himself into NRL “immortality” in his second half masterclass to haul his team over the line after trailing by 16 points with 20 minutes to play.

But it is his dad, that stole the show on Monday morning.

The three-time premiership coach was in good spirits while looking a little worse for wear following the party at Panthers Leagues Club when he was stopped for a quick interview on Channel 9’s Today Show.

Ivan Cleary was dropping bombs. Photo: Channel 9.

What happened next is certain to become a moment of NRL legend — especially for a man whose smile was merely rumoured to have existed until now.

“I couldn’t be better, honestly. I’m feeling pretty good about life to be honest,” he said with a little bit of a wonky shift in his stance.

“It was an incredible game. I still can’t believe we actually won the game. Our community means everything to us and just to come back and see how excited everyone was. Like, the look in everyone’s faces and how happy it made everyone feel. I just can’t explain how good that makes us feel.”

Proof Ivan Cleary can actually smile. Photo: Channel 9.

The first bomb he dropped was on those north of the Tweed when asked if he thought his team was capable of coming back.

“Yeah, Queenslanders, they like fail at the end a lot of the time,” he said with a grin.

“We knew that they’d falter.”

He made it very, very clear his light-hearted comment was a “gee-up”.

But then it was Nathan and his wife Rebecca’s turn.

“I actually said to him yesterday, if I’d married someone else he would have been a pretty s*** player,” Cleary said.

The King and Prince of the NRL. Photo by Izhar KHAN / AFP.

The party started early for Ivan Cleary. Photo by Matt King/Getty Images.

“I’ve got to thank his mum for everything he’s got, you know. Certainly not from me. Yeah, so proud of him. You know what, he owes me though. I’ve driven him to that many things. I’ve made lunches for him and all this stuff. And he’s now actually making my life easy. So I love you Nat.”

His antics left host Karl Stefanovic in stitches.

The Breakfast TV king said it reminded him of his own famous performance of battling through the Today Show the morning after a late-night Logies party.

When asked if he’d had a thousand drinks, Cleary responded: “No. No I haven’t. Not sure how to answer that.”

SCENES 🏆🏆🏆#pantherpride 🐾 pic.twitter.com/JbxS76u7np

— Penrith Panthers 🏆🏆 (@PenrithPanthers) October 1, 2023

Earlier, in the dressing rooms, Cleary thanked the players, staff, coaches and their families for the support.

“There are people here who have done so much for this team and club – players, coaches, staff members, they’re all a part of this three-peat,” he said.

“This group, man, I love you guys so much. That tonight was unbelievable. We played a way that would have beaten most other teams. But the Broncos didn’t go away.”

Cleary said he was going home to sleep for an hour before returning to join the celebrations.

He will have some explaining to do with Nathan when he gets back.

The star halfback became just the second player in the modern era to win two Clive Churchill Medals with his performance on Sunday night.

The Panthers’ historic comeback saw the side come from 16 points down, the biggest NRL Grand Final deficit in history, to become the first side since the 1981-83 Eels to reach the milestone.

And making the feat even more special was the fact that the Panthers are the first to do it in the NRL era and the salary cap era, which is meant to even out the talent.

It was one line from Nathan’s Clive Churchill medal speech that has stood out among NRL commentators: “We are still getting started”.