‘He’s been good’: Nathan Cleary set to return next week as the Panthers address horror defensive stat

The good news for Penrith is that champion halfback Nathan Cleary will be back next week. The bad news is their defence has fallen apart this season.

Panthers superstar Nathan Cleary is on track to return for next Friday’s game against the Cowboys, with the champion halfback to miss Thursday’s showdown with Souths following a head knock last week.

Cleary came off in the eighth minute of last week’s loss to the Storm following a heavy collision with rival halfback Jahrome Hughes.

The Panthers immediately ruled out their best player after he showed category 1 concussion symptoms, which means he was unavailable for their next match under the league’s mandatory 11-day stand-down policy.

Penrith managed to score five tries with him off the field, and they’ll have to rely on their depth again this week, although they will have Cleary back in round 5.

Nathan Cleary is recovering well from his head knock and will return next week. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“He’s been good,” Ivan Cleary said.

“Pretty much the next day, he woke up feeling OK and then better again the next day, so that’s obviously pleasing.

“It was a significant enough blow for him to come off, so you just want him to really get out of those symptoms as quickly as possible, and that’s been the case.”

While they missed his goalkicking last week, Penrith’s main issue was its defence, which has been its biggest strength during their run of four-straight premierships.

The champions have conceded 90 points in the first three rounds compared with just 38 last year, 40 in 2023 and only 10 in 2021 when it took 13 matches for them to give up 90.

“I don’t like any game, any time (to concede that many points), but there are some reasons for it,” Cleary said of his defence which will take time to adjust with so many fresh faces.

Penrith’s defence was exposed by the Storm. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“I thought defensively we made some real strides and I thought we did really well last week, but the score didn’t reflect that.

“We’ve played some good teams with good players. Some of the tries we’ve conceded have been on the back of outstanding attack, particularly against the Roosters the week before.

“Say what you will about that team (with the changes to their roster), but some of the tries they scored would have been hard to stop for anyone.

“But having said that, we have things to improve and that’s what we’re looking forward to on Thursday.”

The Panthers are 1-2 but are warm favourites to bounce back against Souths as they look to steady the ship after a difficult few weeks that started with a bruising win in Las Vegas.

“We haven’t really had a good start since 2022,” Cleary said.

“It’s early days of a long year, so no one is worrying about round 4 at the end of the year, but you’ve got to pick up the wins.”