NRL CEO Andrew Abdo expresses disappointment with Panthers antics in wake of grand final win
As the Panthers await word on a punishment, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has revealed his disappointment with the high jinks of the club’s players in the aftermath to their grand final win.
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NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has confirmed the game is reviewing an unsavoury social media post from Tyrone May and spoken of his disappointment with the antics of Penrith players in the aftermath to their historic grand final win.
The NRL has opened a series of investigations into the Panthers in the days following their victory over South Sydney at Suncorp Stadium, with a final outcome expected to be determined at some point this week.
The sense is that the Panthers will be sanctioned as a club in light of their actions, which prompted club legend and director Greg Alexander to suggest some of the players needed to pull their heads in.
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The negative headlines started when the premiership trophy was damaged as the club celebrated their grand final win. Comments made by May on social media also caused a stir while May along with superstar halfback Nathan Cleary have been spoken to by the integrity unit after three of their mates illegally crossed the border and attended the grand final, sitting in seats close to the club’s family and friends.
While there is no suggestion May or Cleary were aware their mates had crossed the border, or had attended the grand final, the incidents have cast the club in a negative light and Abdo conceded he was disappointed.
“I’m not going to comment on specifics now because we’re in the middle of looking at each of these instances,” Abdo said.
“I’m looking to wrap that up quickly, hopefully this week. But any time we’re in the news for the wrong reasons is disappointing for us.
“Some of the actions are disappointing, we now need to determine whether they are a breach of the rules. If they are, we will take appropriate action.
“Clearly they are not the headlines we want following what was a magnificent grand final.”
Abdo said the NRL had spoken to players and officials but would not discuss the behaviour of individuals.
“Yeah, we have spoken to the club,” he said.
“That’s part of the data-gathering process, part of our investigation. I’m not going to say what we have spoken about, but, of course, we speak to the club and the players involved.”
May’s behaviour in particular has been galling for the NRL. He posted a missive on social media in which he appeared to take aim at people who had been critical of him after he narrowly avoided jail for filming a woman without her consent.
The post was subsequently taken down, but Abdo conceded there were lessons needed to be learned.
“There are two things here; one is if your actions are a clear breach of the rules or not in line with the standards, regardless of whether that is on social media or not,” Abdo said.
“We need to deal with that. The second is how that gets played out publicly. Even if people are not breaking the rules necessarily, but are posting information that is offensive to some people or can be perceived to be offensive or disrespectful to some people, that’s not good for us from an inclusion perspective, that’s not good for us from a brand and reputational perspective.
“There are two elements; have they broke the rules and have they caused damage to the game more broadly?
“Even if we don’t take action on every matter, I think there’s a learning and an opportunity to work with everyone, players and clubs and the game on how we want to position the game, what we think is the right way for that to be positioned on social media and other platforms.”
Panthers stars questioned over fans’ border breach
The NRL integrity unit have interviewed Nathan Cleary and Tyrone May and are expected to hand down their findings later this week as they continue their own investigation into a grand final border breach.
News Corp understands that Cleary – who is booked in for shoulder surgery on Wednesday — and May were spoken to on Tuesday afternoon as part of NRL inquiries into how three men were able to cross the border in breach of health orders and sit in the vicinity of Panthers friends and family at the title decider at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
The men were fined and sent home, and the NRL subsequently opened their own inquiries into the incident. Cleary and May were contacted by the integrity unit because they were seen celebrating with the men after the game and again the next day.
While there is no suggestion that Cleary or May were aware the men had done the wrong thing or were even at the grand final, the integrity unit wanted to make sure they conducted a thorough investigation into the incident.
It is believed that the integrity unit spent Monday liaising with Queensland and NSW Police as they pieced together the machinations behind the latest incident to taint Penrith’s premiership win. NSW Police on Monday confirmed investigations into the three fans at the centre of the incident were ongoing.
While there has been no suggestion that Cleary or May were aware the trio were breaking public health orders or, in fact, had knowledge that they were at the grand final, the integrity unit will leave no stone unturned as they attempt to discover how the men came to gain access to their highly-prized seats on grand final night.
Cleary and May were seen wildly celebrating with the men immediately after the game. The next day, the men were seen with Penrith players at grand final celebrations on a Queensland beach before they were discovered by police, fined and sent home.
Cleary and May lived together in Penrith – they were fined and suspended over the tik-tok scandal at the start of last year. There have been reports that at least one of the men who illegally crossed the border also lived with the pair before the Panthers moved en masse to southeast Queensland when the competition was relocated.
The NRL integrity unit has wide-ranging powers to investigate players, including the right to access their phones if they believe the matter is serious enough to warrant such action.
The grand final incident is the latest in a series of issues that have left a bad taste in the mouth of many following Penrith’s premiership success.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo bit his tongue when contacted by News Corp on Monday, but at some point this week he is expected to offer his views on the Panthers and the way they have handled themselves in the aftermath to their grand final glory.
Chances are it won’t be pretty. There is clearly a sense of frustration from head office at the way the club has responded to its success over the past week.
Penrith officials were not answering calls on Monday but even club legend Greg Alexander – a board member – felt compelled to reveal his disdain for the way some of the club’s players have acted in recent days.
May has been among those in the crosshairs after he posted a message on social media that appeared to take aim at those who had targeted him when he narrowly avoided jail time after filming a sex act with a woman in 2018.
Then Viliame Kikau mocked the Rabbitohs by singing ‘Glory Glory to South Sydney’ before their premiership shenanigans appeared to reach their nadir when the trophy was damaged, prompting the NRL to launch an investigation into how it happened.
South Sydney were already seething at the Panthers amid allegations that Jai Arrow was abused as he made his way off the field for a head injury assessment during the grand final.
“There have been a couple of social media things that haven’t impressed me,” Alexander said on SEN radio. “I think a couple of our players need to pull their heads in after what they’ve posted on social media.
“It gets a bit out of control. I don’t follow social media. I’ve had people tell me about what’s been posted, and some of it shouldn’t have been. It was a bit out of line.”
As for the damage to the premiership trophy, Alexander said: “I don’t think the trophy is a biggie. There’s precedents. Laurie Daley in 1989 the trophy fell off the back of a ute down in Canberra in one of the parades. It tumbled off the back of the ute.
“When they said the trophy has been damaged it wouldn’t have been on purpose. It would have been an accident. I don’t think that is a real issue.”
Raining money: Panthers’ financial bonanza revealed
- Dean Ritchie
Penrith are predicting a financial bonanza after winning Sunday’s grand final with club chief executive Brian Fletcher declaring: “This is an opportunity we can’t waste.”
The Penny Panthers should be renamed the Prosperous Panthers.
News Corp can reveal that the Panthers:
* Sold a staggering $1.3m worth of club merchandise in the first 72 hours after Sunday’s grand final win with that figure to top $3m by Christmas.
* More than 8000 orders were made, the average spend worth more than $150.
* Forecast every home game at BlueBet Stadium next season will be sold out.
* Predicted sponsorship revenue will increase from $7m to $7.5m.
* Tipped club memberships will increase by 10 to 15 per cent.
* Football club operations will run a profit.
* Will shortly commence talks with Penrith City Council about a player street parade before exploring whether a second street parade could be held in Bathurst, the central tablelands town which sponsors the club.
“You don’t get this opportunity very often,” Fletcher said. “And we have to be smart enough to stay in this space for a while — not just be in it, then drop out and come back in 10 years — that’s no good.
“We sold $1.3m worth of merchandise from grand final day until the close of business on Wednesday. We expect the next week or so to be busy and then again when the players get home (from Queensland) and we have a fan day.
“And we expect it to be busy again when our licensed clubs re-open and then with Christmas coming up as well. You would expect that to exceed $2m. I’m being conservative, it might be $3m. It’s a nice, favourable position to be in.”
Fletcher spoke about other areas of the business that he expected to flourish through being premiers.
“Our membership is riding off a successful year last year so we captured a lot of fans,” he said. “But you’d still be hoping for an increase of 10 to 15 per cent. Last year, we were just short of 20,000 in memberships.
“We were just short of $7m this year in sponsorship — that was a club record. We have never gotten near that before. Normally with success comes more sponsorship. If we got to $7.5m then we would be ecstatic.
“All this would allow us to run the football department at a small profit even though we’re not out to make a fortune. We have never been able to do that in the past.”
Fletcher said BlueBet Stadium held a 22,000 crowd capacity that would be reduced to around 18,000 through the restricted four metre Covid rule.
“I reckon all our home games will be sold out next season. And I’m talking ‘ground closed’ — no more tickets for sale,” Fletchersaid.
“When your membership increases, there are less tickets available so it’s easier to sell out. But we will still have the one in two square metre rule where the new ground capacity will be 18,000.
“I am sure Penrith City Council will want to do something to celebrate the win. We just have to wait until we get all the dates for the players coming home. A lot of them aren’t back until the first week in December.
“We also have a licensed club in Bathurst and Bathurst City Council sponsor a game so it would be nice to take the players back up there and parade them down the main street, as a thank you to Bathurst Council.”
The club generally pockets around 50 per cent of merchandise sold.
Penrith will now attempt to become the first club since Melbourne (2016, 2017 and 2018) to reach three successive grand finals.
X-ray reveals true extent of Panther’s heroics
— Peter Badel and Nick Walshaw
Battered Penrith fullback Dylan Edwards has revealed how painkillers and sheer adrenaline helped him overcome a broken foot to join rugby league’s elite club of grand-final heroes.
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary spilled the beans on the true extent of Edwards’ injury after Penrith’s epic 14-12 premiership defeat of Souths, admitting the braveheart custodian had battled a broken foot for the past month.
Edwards first injured his foot in the final round of the regular season against Parramatta on September 3.
In grand-final week, he assured reporters he was suffering only ligament damage and said he was hobbling around on crutches daily as a precautionary move to help rest his injured foot.
But in the wake of Penrith’s breakthrough win, the truth came out, catapulting Edwards into the same stratosphere of bravery as grand-final warriors John Sattler (broken jaw), Andrew Johns (punctured lung) and Sam Burgess (fractured cheekbone).
Cleary was left stunned by Edwards’ outstanding backfield display.
The 25-year-old charged for a game-high 231 metres in the grand final and defused a number of towering bombs as he became the poster boy for the courage of Penrith’s wounded soldiers.
“There’s a few little fractures you could say,” Edwards conceded after helping Penrith to their third premiership.
“I wasn’t getting needles, just a couple of painkillers.
“I couldn’t really needle it because it could have been worse of a break. I just had some painkillers instead.
“It was a bit sore but I didn’t really know what was going on. When you are playing footy, the adrenaline is pumping, it’s not until it settles down that you feel the pain.
“The club has managed me really well and the medical staff have been awesome.
“They would get me to game day and got me through games and back on ice through the week.”
Edwards missed Penrith’s loss to Souths in the opening week of the playoffs, with the shock defeat forcing him to return against Parramatta seven days later in a sudden-death showdown.
Asked how he played a grand final with a broken foot, Edwards said: “I just had to give myself to the team.
“There were 16 other blokes out there putting their bodies on the line and I had to put my body on the line to get the job done.
“I was looking at the person next to me battling stuff. You don’t know if they have injuries, so I just had to put my best foot forward for the team.
“I don’t remember the moment (he broke it), it was more of a loading issue and eventually it just happened.
“I don’t think I need surgery. I might have to have another scan, we’ll see what happens.
“It definitely adds a bit to the story with the injuries we had, it’s a massive high to get the premiership win after everything we have been through.”
Cleary said Edwards’ attitude summed up the fighting spirit of Penrith’s bulging casualty ward, which included James Fisher-Harris (knee), Viliame Kikau (knee), Moses Leota (leg and shoulder) and Nathan Cleary (shoulder).
“Dyl Edwards ... oh my god,” said Cleary, shaking his head in disbelief.
“He has had a broken foot for a month. He hasn’t trained. He has been walking on crutches every week and then he goes out and plays.
“I don’t understand how that can happen. It just sums up their bond.”
Panthers staff have been amazed by the efforts of Edwards, who partied the night away with teammates in a wheelchair — his entire leg strapped and in a boot
“It will be six to eight weeks before he walks normally again,” Penrith Head of Performance Hayden Knowles revealed of the courageous fullback.
“I know people thought we were playing mind games when he appeared on game day in a moon boot. It wasn’t.”
Knowles also explained how Edwards only decided he would play in the grand final on Thursday – and after secret fitness session which lasted only 60 seconds, and saw the fullback in pain with every step he took.
While the rest of the team had the day off, the Panthers No.1 was taken down to the team’s training field near Hyatt Resort with a small group including coach Ivan Cleary, assistant Cam Ciraldo and Knowles.
Also present were the team’s two physios Pete Green and Mitch Delahay — both of whom Knowles insists “deserve a grand final ring” — plus two club doctors.
“And you could see Dylan was nervous,” Knowles said.
Anything else?
“Every step he took, it hurt,” the trainer added. “He was in a lot of pain.”
After a short discussion, it was decided that if Edwards were to be put through any type of significant load in the fitness test, his grand final hopes would end right there on that field.
So instead, they asked the Bellingen Magpies product for only one defensive set.
Just get out there, they said, and visualise playing through a set of six tackles.
“And he did,” Knowles says.
“Rolling (backwards) downfield for five tackles and then, on the last, Dyl sprinted to get to a kick. Then sprinted once more to return it.
“And that was it.”
By now, coach Cleary had moved away from the group while his son Nathan had also arrived by the sideline on a scooter, keen to see the result of what had been one of the shortest grand final fitness tests on record.
Yet still, one of the season’s key moments.
Understanding that while he rarely gets mentioned among superstar NRL fullbacks like James Tedesco, Tom Trbojevic or Latrell Mitchell, Edwards is not only the fittest man on the Panthers roster but also a key part of their famed defensive structure.
“People talk about Penrith being the best defensive team,” Knowles continued. “And I can tell you the rock of that defensive system is Dylan.”
So now, with his 60 seconds of work done, the group huddled up.
“We looked and Dylan and asked if he was good to go or not,” the Panthers performance boss continues. “And Dylan said ‘yeah, I’m good’.”
At which point, they all turned to coach Cleary, stood nearby.
“We gave the thumbs up,” Knowles says. “And Ivan just started clapping.”
PENRITH’S ‘MOST COURAGEOUS MONTH OF FOOTY EVER’
— Dean Ritchie
“The most courageous month of footy I have ever seen.”
That’s the verdict from Penrith legend and club deputy chairman Greg Alexander on the Panthers’ epic four-week charge to grand final glory.
Penrith defied the odds to secure the title after a gruelling four-match finals series in which eight players pushed through injuries and pain.
Coach Ivan Cleary’s side completed a staggering 1324 tackles throughout the finals, the most for a premiership-winning side in NRL history.
Penrith revealed their full injury list on Monday - James Fisher-Harris (knee), Dylan Edwards (foot), Moses Leota (calf strain), Nathan Cleary (shoulder), Brian To‘o (syndesmosis), Tyrone May (knee), Tevita Pangai (knee), Kurt Capewell (two broken fingers) and Jarome Luai (knee).
“Mate, to do what they’ve done, with the players they have busted, on one-leg, one arm, it’s the most courageous month of footy I have ever seen,” said Alexander.
“And that’s not just for Penrith, I can’t ever remember anything like it.
“To have to battle the way they did to win, what they were able to do on Sunday night was quite extraordinary.
“Maybe memories are fading on me but I can’t remember a side going through what they went through.
“That was the question coming into the game. How much did the last three weeks take out of them, emotionally and physically? Could you believe the grand final unfolded the same way as their previous three games did?
“There were big chunks of that grand final where Penrith looked gone if not for their courage, desperation and desire. They kept turning up. It was all heart.”
Former Panthers prop Lou Zivanovic, who played 116 games for the club, added: “I’ve been involved with the club for more than 40 years and that was the toughest and most courageous month of footy from a Panthers side I can remember.”
Panthers CEO Brian Fletcher said he was “astounded’’ by their courage.
“You see them limping around Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then they go and play football,” Fletcher said.
“If this had been mid-season, half of them wouldn’t have played. They were all buggered.
“Fisher-Harris wouldn’t have played, the fullback (Edwards) wouldn’t have played, Cleary would be in hospital, there’s no way in the world Moses Leota would have played. Capewell is playing with two broken fingers.
“The courage is just unbelievable – and there was no week off. They are marvellous young blokes.”
Most courageous four weeks in Penrith’s 54-year history
vs Souths - loss 16-10
vs Parramatta - win 8-6
vs Melbourne - win 10-6
vs Souths - win 14-12
Their 1324 tackles in the finals series is the most we have on record (NRL Era since 1998) for the Premiers. Brisbane made 1224 in 2006.
10.5 points per game is the second fewest ever scored by the Premiers - St George scored just 28 points in three games (9.3 per game) in 1963.
Their 3.5 points per game average margin is the equal second closest finals series all time for the Premiers. Souths won 14-12, 18-14 and 12-11 in 1955 (2.3 avg margin) and 13-8 and 12-10 in 1967 (3.5 per game)
Scored just 42 points in the Finals Series - The fewest by any team since Penrith in 1991 (35 points from 2 games).
Winning four-week aggregate of +2
CLEARY’S SHOULDER ‘HANGING’: ALEXANDER
— Paul Crawley
Penrith director Greg Alexander has lifted the lid on Nathan Cleary’s extraordinary grand final courage, revealing the star playmaker’s injured shoulder had “80 per cent” of the tendon torn and it was “just hanging off his body”.
This came after Cleary produced a magnificent Clive Churchill Medal winning performance with his outstanding general kicking game backed up by a truly gutsy defensive effort that included some heroic tackles in the dying minutes of one of the toughest and roughest grand finals of recent years.
But it was only after the final siren had sounded to Penrith’s 14-12 win over South Sydney that Alexander told Fox Sports the true extent of the damage and pain Cleary had been playing through since he returned to play from the injury initially suffered way back in State of Origin II.
Speaking on Fox, Alexander explained that the damage was far worse than anyone had let on.
“The tendon was torn 80 per cent,” Alexander said.
“It was just hanging.
“It was hanging and they tried cortisones to try and shock it into some scar tissue to strengthen it a little bit but I don’t think much of it worked.
“And he just strapped it up and got on with it.”
Cleary is booked in for surgery this week but his efforts on Sunday night was ultimately the difference between the teams. It will go down in grand final folklore.
He forced five drops outs and his general kicking was simply outstanding.
His defence was also worthy of recognition given the extent of his injury.
“Nathan Cleary made some crucial tackles at the death in that final five minutes,” Alexander said.
“And to do what he has done with one arm is just … I can’t even explain what he has gone through and the fact that the arm is just hanging off his body.
“Like it is just strapped together. And to do what he did … to continue to kick the ball down onto the tryline … the kicking game of Nathan was superb.”
Cleary’s father and coach Ivan later revealed up to five of his players took to the field injured.
Even the harshest critics of Penrith cannot deny the Panthers’ weekly toil and mental fortitude to scale the NRL premiership summit under Cleary.
“It’s purely on courage these boys won it,” he said.
“It’s been a two-year thing. We could barely train the past three weeks.
“There were five guys who shouldn’t have played out there ... Dylan Edwards has had a broken foot for a month. I can’t believe it.”
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