Technically, their season started last week at Suncorp Stadium.
But if the Panthers go on to win another premiership, their fifth in the last six years, it will be traced back to a cold, miserable night in Bathurst. One Penrith’s players still reference to this day.
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That 25-6 loss to Newcastle was brought up a lot last year, a “line-in-the-sand moment” according to halfback Nathan Cleary, who wasn’t playing but instead had to watch on with the rest of the team’s Origin representatives in camp as Penrith’s season quickly threatened to slip away.
“It was pretty abysmal to be honest,” Cleary told former Panthers teammate Josh Mansour on his podcast earlier this year.
“… Like what the hell is going on? I don’t know if we can make the finals.”
Cleary even admitted to thinking about someone like new recruit Isaiah Papali’i, who had come to the club from the struggling Tigers only to find himself back at the bottom of the ladder.
“He just working his absolute ass off at the start of the year and it just wasn’t happening,” Cleary said.
“I was thinking within myself what he would be thinking… is he thinking I’ve made the wrong decision to come here?”
It was a dark night in Bathurst. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
It was that question prompted Cleary and co-captain Isaah Yeo to ask themselves what more they could do as leaders to galvanise the young players and bring the group together.
Meanwhile, away from Origin camp back home in Penrith, what followed was a particularly scathing review session from coach Ivan Cleary, which Nathan and the rest of the Origin players weren’t there for but were told was “quite ruthless”. Then that was followed by a wrestling session right after, and a general lift in training standards.
That hasn’t let up ever since. Cleary described it to Mansour as “letting go of this ego of holding onto the premiership”.
“It’s not ours anymore,” he added. “It’s back on the table. Anyone can win it.”
And yet, the Panthers almost did win it. They should have won it. But in those dying seconds at Suncorp when the game was on the line and Cleary, the NRL’s iceman, had a shot to send the preliminary final to golden point, Penrith was instead caught in two minds.
The result was a rushed Dylan Edwards two-point field goal attempt that fell short. It, like the Panthers players at that point, just didn’t have the legs to go on any further.
An honest Edwards admitted to reporters last week that his end to the season was “sub-par”, while adding that earlier in the year the team, “without knowing”, started to get complacent at training.
Complacency can present itself in many different forms. It is something Ivan would often say to Nathan, that it can “seep in the slightest, smallest ways”.
“And you’re not even actively doing it,” Cleary added.
“You’re not even aware that you’re being complacent.”
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Broncos kept scoreless by tough Panthers | 02:46
But somewhere along the way, standards started to slip. Corners were cut.
“We didn’t want that to happen again,” Edwards told reporters last week.
So, there was a “real flick (of the switch)” at training according to Isaah Yeo that Cleary said “pretty much changed our season”.
It wasn’t quite enough to win another premiership, but after shutting out Brisbane in their first trip back to Caxton Street since that 16-14 loss, it looks like the NRL’s premiership-winning machine is back.
All the parts are in place too, with Casey McLean and Blaize Talagi getting a full season of first grade under their belt.
On Saturday, the Panthers return to the low point of their 2025 season: Bathurst.
Again, it was noteworthy that second rower Luke Garner mentioned that loss to the Knights last week ahead of Penrith’s season opener, calling it a “turning point” and one the playing group still references “here and there”.
Now, as they did last Friday night in Brisbane, the Panthers have a chance to bury the ghosts of their past.
This will be a very different team to the one that struggled against Newcastle though. And it’s not just the new names.
Rather, there is also something to be said about both McLean and Talagi getting a second pre-season with the NRL squad, and in the case of Talagi it is technically his first.
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Blaize Talagi continues to develop. Picture: NRL PhotosSource: Supplied
As Cleary pointed out, all four members of Penrith’s spine — himself, Talagi, Edwards and Mitch Kenny, spent the entire pre-season in rehab.
With that in mind, it is hardly a surprise that the Panthers had such a slow start to the season.
But back to McLean and Talagi, they were just the biggest names in what Cleary said was “probably the biggest influx of young players” the club had for a while.
The injection of young talent was and continues to be important for a Penrith side that has constantly had its homegrown players poached by rival clubs, but it also meant there was an adjustment period similar to what the Panthers went through in 2020, the last time they fell short of the premiership.
“I remember in 2020 it was a big change over of players and then guys like Romey, Bizza, Critta, Spenny… all these sort of young guys are coming through and then we had sort of those senior heads as well,” Cleary told Mansour on his podcast.
“So it probably felt a little bit like that again, probably the most it has. It’s no secret that every year there’s people moving on and we’ve lost some unbelievable players, unbelievable. People that you can’t replace, but we’ve been quite lucky that we’ve been able to sort of just adjust really quickly and not much has changed.
“We’ve had guys come through and this year was probably a year where maybe the guys were thrown the deep end a little bit.”
Ivan praises Panthers’ ‘solid’ defence | 05:27
The biggest challenge early on for the pair was their defence, with Ivan Cleary even conceding at one point that it wasn’t any “real scoop” that their left edge was targeted by rival teams.
But then there was also the matter of living up to high expectations, externally, given who they were replacing. So, it was only fitting that McLean seemed to really arrive at the NRL level in Penrith’s 8-6 win over the Bulldogs, where he more than stepped up to the plate against Stephen Crichton.
Cleary always knew McLean was an “absolute freak”. “Just the things he would do at training was unbelievable,” he added.
And for Panthers legend Greg Alexander, based on what he produced in his first full season there is no reason the 19-year-old can’t one day be the “best centre in the game”.
“That’s his ceiling,” Alexander told foxsports.com.au.
As for Talagi, Alexander said the next step in his development is adding more subtlety to his ball-playing, and there is no one better to learn that from than Cleary, who was a little one-dimensional when he debuted but quickly learned how to play with more tempo and deception.
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Talagi is growing in confidence. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“Blaize is a great running player. He loves to take the line on. He’s courageous. He can break tackles,” Alexander said.
“I think the next thing in Blaize’s development as a five-eighth is just the subtleties and ball-playing, just being able to focus on not always having to run through the defence, but have the defence in two minds about what you’re going to do with the ball, whether you’re going to pass, run or kick.
“Blaize is 21. He’s only been in the game for a couple of years now. I’m looking forward to watching Blaize develop this year.”
Another one of the fresh faces in Penrith’s line-up last year was Tom Jenkins, a breakout star on the wing who was one of the club’s more consistent performers in its rise up the ladder but started to have his defensive deficiencies exposed late in the season.
It prompted Ivan Cleary to make the tough call to drop Jenkins, who joined Penrith’s NRL development list in 2022 before a stint at Newcastle, for the first week of the finals.
“It’s always tough to swallow your pride,” Jenkins told reporters earlier this week.
“It was a long season and heading into the first finals series there was a lot of excitement around it… obviously not to be there is so disappointing but in saying that, it’s not just me. A lot of other boys in this building have copped similar issues and had to deal with it.”
Tom Jenkins is congratulated by teammates after scoring. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
So, Jenkins went about doing just that, having an impressive pre-season which saw him recalled the NRL side and while Izack Tago could push for selection when he is ready to go, the Boorowa product gave Cleary little reason to repeat history with a two-try effort against Brisbane.
“He was one of the better stories in the game last year, not just at Penrith,” Alexander said.
“The fact that it didn’t work out at Newcastle, and he was thinking about just playing Ron Massey Cup with some of his friends back here at St Mary’s, and then Ivan gave him an opportunity to train in the off-season.
“… Milky was always a skilful player, with ability and athletic. I just like the way something good always happens around Tom Jenkins.”
Another former Panthers player who had a brief change of scenery in Newcastle before heading back to the foot of the mountains is Jack Cogger and according to premiership-winning playmakers Cooper Cronk and Matty Johns, he could be Penrith’s secret weapon.
While Cogger’s signing gave the Panthers a dependable back-up for when Nathan Cleary is on Origin duty or should their superstar halfback go down injured, coach Cleary curiously injected him into the game against the Broncos last week.
It wasn’t as if Cleary was doing it with the result beyond doubt either, substituting Cogger on in the 51st minute when the Panthers led 18-0.
For Johns, who spoke to Cogger after his heroics in the 2024 grand final filling in late for the injured Jarome Luai, it was a glimpse at what could be an underrated role for the utility in 2026.
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“Sometimes when you’re doing that (steering the team around) week in, week out it can get mentally tiring. You can see when he comes on in those 15 to 20-minute bursts, Nathan frees up,” Johns said on ‘Matty and Cronk’.
“I spoke to Jack Cogger about the grand final they won against Brisbane and he was crucial in that win. Without Cogger, they don’t win that game. I said, ‘What was the message that Ivan gave you?’.
“He said, ‘Just get on there and take control of the team, don’t support Nathan. Get the game plan back on and free up Nathan’. He ran on the field to Nathan and said, ‘Let me control it, you just float around and play more of a second receiver role’, and that’s what he brings.”
Cronk, meanwhile, said Cogger can be “plugged in and out of the game” when needed, either filling in for Mitch Kenny at hooker when he needs a break or even as a ball-playing forward who can get through plenty of tackling in the middle while also offering an extra long-range kicking option.
Now, as both Cronk and Johns later pointed out, opposition teams may start to target Cogger more in defence should that happen.
But either way, based on the first round alone it seems Penrith has an intriguing ace up its sleeve because of the NRL’s new interchange rules and for Alexander, you only have to go back to that grand final win against Brisbane to see why it could end up being a masterstroke.
“Look what Jack was able to do to the team when he came onto the field,” Alexander said.
“That’s why Penrith were keen to get Jack back because they knew what he could add, not just as a replacement for Nathan when he played Origin.”
Cogger is an underrated piece. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Obviously Cogger would have been handy in that Bathurst game against Newcastle too.
But for the first time in what feels like a long time, the Panthers entered the season with an unfamiliar sense of continuity. Always used to being scavenged by rival clubs, Penrith did have 11 players depart the club at the end of the year but none of them were regular first-graders.
Four new faces arrived, including Cogger, but for the most part the squad that just fell short of a sixth-straight grand final last year remained.
Those young players, like Talagi and McLean, arrived at the pre-season different players to the ones that rocked up last summer, and the same can be said for the rest of the team.
Understanding that the premiership was definitely no longer theirs and was back on the table. Once again, anyone can win it.
But when this Penrith machine is at its clinical best, it is hard to stop and based on the first 80 minutes the Panthers produced in 2026, that 25-6 loss to the Knights in Bathurst may end up being the best thing that could have ever happened to them.
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