How Nathan Cleary came back in magic round

Magic Round did the trick for Nathan Cleary. He found his hat, bursting with rabbits, as Penrith ambushed Brisbane 32-8 at Suncorp Stadium.

Nathan Cleary celebrates after scoring a try for his Panthers against the Broncos during their Magic Round clash. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

A decorated Australian sportsman hadn’t struggled this sensationally since Ian Baker-Finch was hooking balls out of bounds at Royal Troon. What happened to Nathan Cleary? He was playing with the befuddled expression of a magician who’d lost the art of plucking a rabbit from his hat.

Then came the Penrith Panthers’ 32-8 ambush of the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.

Cleary got down and dirty, running hard and straight, swinging momentum with an enchanting 40/20 kick that swerved and skidded like a tenpin bowling ball.

Penrith’s Nathan Cleary tries to give Broncos captain Pat Carrigan the slip at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday night. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

The gods painted a rainbow over the city as he scored a jinking, sidestepping, opportunistic try that was spookily similar to the one that broke Broncos hearts in the 2023 grand final.

Previously, what was going on with Cleary and his Panthers? We know he’d been struck by Cupid’s Arrow, courtesy of Mary Fowler, but had the blade also damaged his ventricles?

We know it takes a while to recover from a trip to Las Vegas, where the Panthers started their season, but this was getting ridiculous. Never in a million years, when they began their quest for a fifth straight NRL premiership, would any right-minded soul have believed they’d be last on the ladder after round nine? Racehorses used to be taken out the back and shot for running so lame.

Magic Round did the trick. Cleary found his hat, bursting with rabbits. He had the ball on a string. And the Panthers rediscovered their mojo and the knack of winning. When Ben Hunt leapt high to score the Broncos’ first try, the player he beat to the ball was poor old Cleary, jumping at shadows, but the masterful No.7 was about to whisper abracadabra and cast his trademark spell.

He still had two arms and two legs, even if there had been a chewy on his right boot for a while, and knew what to do with them. A pinpoint kick gave Izack Tago a simple try. Kotoni Staggs knocked him on his backside but he retaliated with the 40/20 skidder that turned around the match and perhaps the Panthers’ season. Two tackles later, a big, beautiful bopper called Luron Patea, in just his second NRL game of 2025, scored in the manner of a skidding truck and we were witnessing the Penrith of old.

Brisbane’s Ben Hunt opens the scoring on Sunday night with a try close to the posts against Penrith. Picture: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

The Broncos suffered the biggest defeat in Brisbane since Peter Dutton lost Dickson.

Fox Sports commentator Matty Johns said the Panthers could win the premiership from eighth. If Johns says it, I believe it.

They defended again as if it was a matter of honour. Their attack went from clunky to classy. Cleary didn’t miss a trick, all fairways and greens, twirling his pencil-thin moustache and celebrating at full-time with a polite “F..k yeah,” after yet again running rings around Broncos’ rival Adam Reynolds.

Asked if he had mental demons against the Panthers, Reynolds replied: “No. You can write all the headlines you want. I didn’t have one of my greatest games. I just got a few things wrong out there and put the team under pressure.”