Semi-final hero stands up again; Cleary below his best<\/a><\/p>\nNathan Cleary and Ivan Cleary.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve really had to grow as leaders, and quite frankly, we weren\u2019t doing it well enough this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve found it a really enjoyable season, but one where I\u2019ve learned a lot and going into off-season now, it\u2019s like an opportunity to grow even more and come back stronger. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited for the future and I wouldn\u2019t say anything\u2019s over there.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cleary was asked if it was just as hollow in the dressing room as it was when they lost the 2020 Grand Final. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust as hollow, it\u2019s a horrible feeling,\u201d Cleary said. <\/p>\n
The Panthers blew a 14-point lead to go down in a thriller, but Cleary senior never felt they had the game won. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I didn\u2019t feel like that,\u201d Cleary said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the first half obviously we did some good things that we defended really well. We scored the points when we needed to, but it was never going to be just the way the years gone, particularly their year as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t feel like we were in control of the whole game. I thought the second half, generally speaking, I thought we were on the back foot quite a bit. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen just couldn\u2019t kind of, there was a little moment you needed to get some extra possession and things were going their way, which kind of happens when they looked like they had more fuel in the tank, to be honest. <\/p>\n
Penrith miss FRANTIC final chance | 00:43<\/p>\n
\u201cDisappointing result, but we were in there swinging all the way to the end, but ultimately not quite good enough.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cleary senior admitted his team looked fatigued, which could have something to do with their long season and long finals series, with the no team winning from outside the top four streak to continue in 2025. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely looked fatigued in the second half,\u201c Cleary said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey were obviously coming home and coming hard, and there were some little moments there where you get back-to-back sets, where that seemed to happen a lot. <\/p>\n
Cleary v Mam KICKS OFF! Bin or no bin? | 00:43<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then we had to defend and and when we got the ball back, we just didn\u2019t seem to have, we couldn\u2019t do enough and we\u2019re under pressure again. That\u2019s how it felt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleary admitted a call to give Scott Sorensen a category one concussion when he passed his HIA was frustrating and hurt their bench rotation after he was rubbed out of the game in the second minute. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge call, especially when he passes his HIA,\u201d Cleary said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know, tough moment, makes life a bit harder, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
GF BOUND! Broncos seal HEROIC comeback! | 00:38<\/p>\n
Cleary junior denied the Panthers panicked after blowing a big lead, but believes the team will be better for their experiences this season. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say panic, I think it was just a game filled with fatigue and that game sort of reminded me a lot of last year\u2019s Grand Final,\u201d Cleary junior said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just like too and fro, too and for and there wasn\u2019t a lot of attacking shapes going on it was just all through the middle and I thought the difference last year and probably over the last four years is we were in positions to save tries and we actually saved them where tonight we probably didn\u2019t do that for all their tries. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we were there or there abouts to make a play and we didn\u2019t do it and unfortunately that\u2019s probably been the story of our season, particularly in the second halves. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just sort of let teams back in it and we knew the Broncos were going to come home strong and it\u2019s disappointing because we had opportunities to kick ahead in the second half attacking their line but again fatigue plays a big role in that and it\u2019s frustrating but it\u2019s something to reflect on and get better.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ivan Cleary warned the Panthers\u2019 dynasty is not over despite failing to make the Grand Final for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,113711,4428,113713,113702,21683,74447,13213,97423,113703,4746,4466,113700,1203,113706,113704,4598,113708,19095,82581,113710,113712,4476,85,113705,113701,113707,113709,106245],"class_list":["post-175031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bench-rotation","tag-brisbane-broncos","tag-broncos-ratings","tag-disappointing-result","tag-ezra-mam","tag-final-series","tag-finals-series","tag-game-won","tag-hero-stands","tag-mark-st-john","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-nail-biting-two-point-win","tag-nathan-cleary","tag-panthers-ratings","tag-panthers-skipper","tag-penrith-panthers","tag-prelim-miracle","tag-preliminary-final","tag-preliminary-final-loss","tag-premiership-dynasty","tag-real-strides","tag-scott-sorensen","tag-sports","tag-straight-grand-finals","tag-two-point-preliminary-final","tag-v-mam-kicks","tag-walsh","tag-young-guys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175031","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=175031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}