{"id":133159,"date":"2025-09-10T16:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T16:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/133159\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T16:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T16:17:13","slug":"ivan-cleary-laughs-off-son-jett-influencing-panthers-vs-warriors-elimination-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/133159\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Cleary laughs off son Jett influencing Panthers vs Warriors elimination final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ivan Cleary<\/a> has laughed off suggestions his son Jett<\/a> could have an influence on Penrith<\/a>‘s elimination final, claiming the Warriors<\/a> pivot “doesn’t know” any inside intel.<\/p>\n

The youngest Cleary brother has been plying his trade in NSW Cup this season for the Warriors and will fill the role held by Nathan<\/a> in opposed sessions this week.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old is yet to make his NRL debut but has impressed in the reserve grade competition, helping steer the Wahs towards the minor premiership.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ennis lands job with rival club after quitting Sea Eagles<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘It’s who we are, mate’: UK reacts to ‘box office’ Ange 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bears pillage Broncos to land major signing coup<\/a><\/p>\n

But during his pre-game media conference on Wednesday morning, his father and rival coach didn’t have any concerns when Jett’s role in the do-or-die clash was raised.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ivan Cleary comments on his son and Warriors halfback Jett\u00a0Getty\/Nine<\/p>\n

“He doesn’t know,” Ivan said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

“He shouldn’t be [family first], he will be doing his job this week for his club and that’s how it should be. I think it’s a fun part of the week, he’s got his own game to plan for.<\/p>\n

“As long as he does his job for his team, that’s the main thing.”<\/p>\n

Cleary Jr. will play for the Warriors in a semi final against the Dragons on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the influence of Jett being in the weeds in Auckland won’t bother the other two Cleary family members, the loss of Mitch Kenny<\/a> is a major blow for the Panthers.<\/p>\n

The reliable hooker has been ruled out with a hamstring injury and Cleary conceded it would be a tough loss for the reigning premiers to overcome.<\/p>\n

\"Mitch<\/p>\n

Mitch Kenny\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“We took Mitch off at half-time last week – it was more of a precaution, but he was definitely feeling something,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was a little bit worse than we initially thought, but it’s still only a minor strain but that’s bad enough to not be able to play at his absolute best and that’s what we need.<\/p>\n

“It is a fair out, Mitch has been critically important to us for a long period of time.<\/p>\n

“We’re trying not to focus on who’s out, but who’s in.<\/p>\n

“Sommo [Luke Sommerton] comes in and for over two seasons now, every time he’s been required to come in he’s done a good job and we pride ourselves on that.<\/p>\n

“Every team throughout the finals is missing key players, so it’s just part of the deal.”<\/p>\n

The other big change for Penrith heading into this week’s game is the decision from Cleary to axe standout winger Tom Jenkins for last year’s grand final hero Paul Alamoti<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Paul Alamoti celebrates during last year’s grand final\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Jenkins had been one of the “greatest stories” of the season after starting on a Ron Massey Cup contract and soon forcing his way into the top grade, but Alamoti earned the nod for the showdown at Go Media Stadium.<\/p>\n

“It’s not great, it’s not a fun part of the job,” Cleary said.<\/p>\n

“It’s just one of those things around finals time, we can’t pick everyone. Tom’s had an amazing year, one of the greatest stories of our season and he’ll be ready when needed.<\/p>\n

“I’d rather not go through the ins and outs of why we select certain players. It’s suffice to say that I think we picked the players that will give us the best chance to win this week.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ivan Cleary has laughed off suggestions his son Jett could have an influence on Penrith‘s elimination final, claiming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-133159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}