‘I couldn’t bear thinking about losing’: Sleepless Cleary buries his grand final hoodoo

Ivan Cleary admitted he “couldn’t bear” thinking about losing another grand final after four decades of heartache, promising to savour the moment for a long time as he shed the tag as the longest serving coach bar Brain Smith yet to win a title.

Cleary, who admitted he woke at 2am on the day of the grand final fretting over a “calculated” gamble to play a host of injured stars, hailed the resilience of his young side, which scrambled past South Sydney 14-12 in an absorbing grand final at Suncorp Stadium.

Cleary’s son Nathan (shoulder), fullback Dylan Edwards (foot), winger Brian To’o (ankle) and prop James Fisher-Harris (knee) all carried problems into the match, while Moses Leota (calf) returned after missing the grand final qualifier. Tevita Pangai jnr (knee) was ruled out during the week.

But as much as he didn’t want one of the pre-game storylines to be about him, the 50-year-old finally enjoyed a grand final triumph in his third time of asking as an NRL coach.

“I couldn’t bear thinking about losing today,” Cleary said. “Personally, since I was a fan, a player, assistant coach, a coach … it’s probably 45 years never winning a grand final. I’m going to make this one last, I can tell you.”

Stephen Crichton’s intercept try from a stray Cody Walker pass 14 minutes from full-time proved the difference as South Sydney captain Adam Reynolds shaved the right upright with a potential match-levelling sideline conversion five minutes from the end.

The Panthers celebrate their third premiership with victory over the Rabbitohs.Credit: Getty

Reynolds, in his last game for the club, had been battling a groin problem all week. It stopped him from goalkicking in the grand final qualifier, before he resumed duties on Sunday night.

But the story of the night was the resilience of the Panthers, who tackled their way to their title with a cast of injured players who managed to score just seven tries in four finals games.

Asked about the hampered players, Cleary said: “I reckon there was at least five that probably shouldn’t have been playing today. I don’t say that lightly. It was a calculated risk on a lot of boys.

“I actually woke up at two o’clock this morning and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was thinking, ‘honestly, three or four of them could have been gone by 10 minutes’. It was calculated. They refused not to play.

Title-winning Panthers coach Ivan Cleary.Credit: Getty

“‘Fish’, Moses, Dyl Edwards has had a broken foot for a month. He has not trained. He’s been walking around on crutches every week, then goes out and plays. I don’t understand how that can happen. I guess that just sums up the bond.

“What we have been able to do is we’ve had a lot of guys play injured throughout the season. They created this culture where no one wanted to be the one to put their hand up and say they couldn’t play. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. It’s incredible.”

Cleary had the rare honour of handing the Clive Churchill Medal to son and co-captain Nathan, who was instrumental in the win with a near flawless kicking display.

Playing with a shoulder that needs off-season surgery this week, the No.7 forced three dropouts alone in the first half and suffocated the Rabbitohs with his right boot all night.

That was completely out of this world. I was standing there and was like, ‘I couldn’t have written that story’

Ivan Cleary

Ivan was asked to present the medal for best player in the grand final with a host of dignitaries locked out of Queensland due to COVID restrictions.

“That was completely out of this world,” Ivan said. “I was standing there and was like, ‘I couldn’t have written that story’. I didn’t know it was happening, I didn’t know I had to do it.

“‘Satts’ [Scott Sattler] actually said to me just before because I had the medal, ‘you’re giving that to Nathan’. I said, ‘I don’t know who’s going to get it’. He said, ‘no, he’s going to get it’. I don’t know how to explain it.

“Daily, he’s part of the team, captain and player, but I think we’ve still been able to be father and son. I think that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to coach him in the first place. I always felt our personalities would work.

“We had some hard times a few years ago where I felt a bit guilty and his form was probably not where it could have been. In the end, I think that only helped. When the siren went and I saw him out there, he’s still my boy.”

The Clearys joined Penrith’s Martin and John Lang as the Panthers’ other grand final-winning father-son combination.

Said Nathan about his shoulder: “It probably lasted about two minutes [I thought the season was over] when I first found out and the prognosis of what it was. The physio pretty much called me straight away and he was like, ‘we’ll get you back’. As soon as they said that, that’s what it was going to be.”

The Panthers’ title hopes took a massive hit when they were stunned by the Rabbitohs in the opening week of the finals, but they rebounded to win their next three matches against the Eels (two points), the Storm (four) and Rabbitohs (two) by a combined margin of eight points on the back of the NRL’s best defence.

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