NRL news: Ivan Cleary breaks down Nathan’s grand final winning try | Locker Room

In an uncharacteristically candid interview, Ivan Cleary has given an enthralling insight into the Panther’s grand final comeback, admitting he didn’t see Nathan’s matchwinning try coming.

Ivan Cleary has broken down the Panthers’ grand final win, admitting he didn’t see Nathan’s match winning try coming. Picture: Getty Images

Has Ivan Cleary unintentionally answered the only question Penrith fans want to know?

Which is, can the champions continue their NRL supremacy without Jarome Luai?

In a fascinating podcast recorded recently with leadership guru Dan Haesler, Cleary went to a place he rarely treads. He ranks as one of the most reserved coaches in the NRL.

Yet Cleary provides a highly detailed, uncharacteristically candid and enthralling insight into how Penrith secured the NRL’s greatest moment of 2023; their incredible come-from-behind grand final win over the Broncos.

It was the match that – with Luai off the field injured – son and Panthers playmaker Nathan Cleary etched his name alongside the greats of the game with a 78th minute solo try to seal Penrith’s historic third consecutive premiership.

Cleary admits how Nathan went with his own instinct, surprising his own father, with the grand final winning play that has been compared to the high-level execution of legends Andrew Johns and Johnathan Thurston.

Ivan Cleary has broken down the Panthers’ grand final win, admitting he didn’t see Nathan’s match winning try coming. Picture: Getty Images

“When we had the dropout at 24-20 with four minutes to go, I was thinking, okay, it’s probably getting closer to where we need to score,” Cleary told Haesler.

“Mitch Kenny hit Fish (James Fisher-Harris with a pass), that was a really good chance.

“Then he (Kenny) went where Nat was on the short side and he hit Sorro (Scott Sorensen with a pass).

“I thought he (Kenny) probably should’ve hit Nat (with a pass) there.

“Then I thought, we’re going to have to go back to the other side of the field.

“But Nathan stayed on the short side. I thought, he’s (Kenny) going to go to him, he probably shouldn’t do that, because they’ve (Broncos) got more (defenders) than we have.

“And the rest is history.

“Nathan spoke to me later about that (try).

“Without going into detail, there was a part of the Broncos that we wanted to attack, and that he was still thinking about on that play (is impressive).’’

It was the matchwinning try for Penrith, but Ivan Cleary thought his players made the wrong play in the lead-up. Picture: Getty Images

Cleary also offered a stunning insight into the mental resilience of Nathan at a point in the match where the Panthers had cut the Broncos 24-8 advantage in half.

“We’d forced another dropout,” Cleary said.

“And while he was waiting for the dropout, he’d thought to himself, ‘oh, geez we’ve done well. Fourth grand final, we’ve come back when everyone thought we were gone. Even if we lose, people are going to say, geez these guys have done a good job.

“Then he just thought, ‘no, no, I’ve got to keep going.’’

“Everyone says how good he was, but it just goes to show all the work we do mentally, which we’ll still work on, it feels good that the work we’ve put in and he’s put in over a long period of time, can stand up and help you in those times.”

Interestingly, Cleary even shared the one crack in the window of the mighty Penrith machine which frustrated him during the 2023 season, but somehow repaired itself, when it mattered most.

Jarome Luai was forced from the field in the grand final, right before Panthers launched their stunning comeback. Picture: NRL Photos

“I watched the last 20-minutes before I watched anything else, maybe twice, just to see what did happen,” Cleary said.

“I saw some things like, we never left our game plan. Even under all that pressure.

“But there were little moments that we had discussed throughout the year or even in the weeks leading.

“For example we got more results (in the grand final) defending short dropouts, or short kick-offs, than we got the whole year.

“And we were not actually that good at that.

“It’s one piece of our game, we’re just not good at it. And on the biggest night, we scored tries off it, got a penalty goal from it so there were eight points in the first-half defending short dropouts.

“All these things together. I think if maybe one of them had gone wrong, then that would’ve been enough just to lose that momentum and we might not have got there.’’

The win secured three consecutive premierships, the greatest rugby league feat of the modern era.

The 52-year-old also unfurled his plan to win four consecutive titles in 2024, a feat that no team has achieved since the mighty St George Dragons conjured through 1956 to 1966.

“When we won the 2021 grand final, that was my 15th season as a head coach. I’d played 12 (seasons) as a player, so that’s 27 seasons without winning one,’’ Cleary said.

“So it took me a long while to win.

“I think I had got complacent. I wasn’t searching for the stars. If we won a few games, I’d be like how good this is.

“I’d ease-off and give myself a pat on the back. It was probably only that I got to the point in 2019, when I first came back to the Panthers on a five-year contract and that first year was awful.

“It was awful enough for me to think, I’m not sure if I’m the right man for the job and if we don’t do something next year, I’m out.

“That’s how awful it got.

“So I said, we’re going to win and rather than just being happy surviving, or coming fourth, we’re going to set the bar higher.

“Personally, that’s why I’ll never get complacent anymore.

“I like winning, I like being where we are and I don’t like the thought of anyone else taking that spot, so we’re going to keep going.

“I do know one thing, we have to evolve. We have to improve.

“I’ve got some ideas around that, but it’s a fine line, because you don’t want to reinvent the wheel with a foundation that has been so successful and we know works.”