{"id":169713,"date":"2025-09-26T05:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169713\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T05:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:39:09","slug":"ivan-cleary-focused-on-brisbane-despite-nrl-grand-final-disadvantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169713\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Cleary focused on Brisbane despite NRL grand final disadvantage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cleary\u2019s immediate concern is getting his defending four-time champions past Brisbane and into the Big Dance. The Broncos will be fresh after their epic win against Canberra in week one of the play-offs and are boosted by the return from injuries of skipper Adam Reynolds and utility back Ezra Mam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But all eyes will be on dynamic fullback Reece Walsh<\/a>, who almost beat the Raiders single-handedly with 15 minutes of magic.<\/p>\n

\"Keeping<\/p>\n

Keeping Reece Walsh contained will be a priority for Penrith. Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, Reece is one of many weapons in their team, and whether it\u2019s him or anyone else, the main thing is for us to control what we can do, for us to play well, and that gives us the best chance to try and limit what he can do,\u201d Cleary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s obviously going to have an impact on the game, and there\u2019s going to be some scary situations throughout the game, but how we play and how we can control what we do gives us the best chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers appear to be timing their run to perfection after producing a first half against the Bulldogs last week that delivered a finals-record 36-8 half-time scoreline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we replicate it? I\u2019m not sure,\u201d Cleary said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll be doing our best to prepare to play our best because it\u2019s what we\u2019ll need.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Panthers were pretty much perfect in the first half against Canterbury.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time of year, the stakes are high. You\u2019re playing the best teams and under the most pressure. That\u2019s what we prepare for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coach admitted he was not surprised Penrith\u2019s left-edge defence has attracted scrutiny this week after conceding three second-half tries against the Bulldogs last week.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a real scoop that our left edge gets targeted,\u201d Cleary said. \u201cIt\u2019s been happening for probably 20 weeks in a row. The good thing about those boys is they learn on the run and learn from each situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an ominous warning for Brisbane, Cleary predicted his son Nathan \u2013 who produced a masterclass against Canterbury with a try and seven goals \u2013 had room for improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely things that I can see that he can do better,\u201d he said. \u201cHe knows that as well. But there\u2019s little nuances here and there … he\u2019s always up for little things to get better at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleary was confident representative back-rower Liam Martin, who suffered a rib injury last week, would be cleared to take his place.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarto\u2019s fine … at this point, we\u2019re confident he\u2019ll be all right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Win one of 10 double passes to the 2025 NRL grand final. Click here for details<\/a> and to enter the competition, exclusive to Sydney Morning Herald subscribers.<\/p>\n

NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleary\u2019s immediate concern is getting his defending four-time champions past Brisbane and into the Big Dance. The Broncos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-169713","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\/169713","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=169713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}