New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nBut one contentious moment in the second half had fans watching on up in arms and slamming the officiating.<\/p>\n
With 25 minutes remaining the contest Ezra Mam chased down and dumped Nathan Cleary as he sent a kick soaring into the Brisbane sky.<\/p>\n
The Panthers halfback wasn\u2019t happy with the treatment he received and delivered a left hand to the chin of Mam.<\/p>\n
Mam responded in kind by shoving Cleary\u2019s head twice before Panthers enforcer Liam Martin came storming in and took the Broncos star to the turf.<\/p>\n
Play continued for a while before Atkins whistled the game dead before the incident between the trio was sent to be looked at.<\/p>\n
After a brief moment the decision was handed down with no players reprimanded and play getting back underway.<\/p>\n
The call not to sent either Cleary to the sin bin infuriated the rugby league community who took to social media to last out.<\/p>\n
Cooper Cronk said on Fox League Mam and Martin would have been sin binned in a regular season game.<\/p>\n
Code Sports\u2019 Matthew McInerney wrote on X: \u201cCleary closed fist to the face – doesn\u2019t matter how hard or who it\u2019s to, that\u2019s a sin bin these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another questioned: \u201cSo you can throw a punch but only if you are Nathan CLEARY?\u201d<\/p>\n
News.com.au readers were equally as incensed that Martin wasn\u2019t sent from the field as the Broncos attempted to fight back in the contest.<\/p>\n
Tim Betts wrote on Facebook: \u201cSo Nathan throws a closed fist punch (be it weak as) and Martin comes in with a swinging arm and no one gets sent \u2026 Riiiight cool cool cool, tell me how they aren\u2019t a protected team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lorraine Carthew wrote: \u201cHas always been 10 in the bin. Why not today? Could it be it was a Panther?\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron Crossley posted: \u201c3rd man in. If that\u2019s JWH or Radley they\u2019re already at the pub.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite no Panthers player being sent from the field, the Broncos still managed to wrestle away the momentum of the game.<\/p>\n
After being down 14-0 in the second half, the Broncos scored three unanswered tries with two coming in the final 10 minutes of play.<\/p>\n
Xavier Willison scored in the 69th minute to ignite the clash before Deine Mariner crossed in the 75th minute to level the scores.<\/p>\n
Broncos veteran Adam Reynolds then sealed the result with a clutch kick from just inside the touch line to secure the 16-14 victory.<\/p>\n
It sets up a Grand Final showdown against the Melbourne Storm next Sunday night.<\/p>\n
Originally published as Fans incensed as Nathan Cleary and Liam Martin go unpunished<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The whistle was well and truly away on Sunday night during the Panthers and Broncos preliminary final at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[18743,64,63,113717,113726,113719,113724,113725,11101,21683,2456,113722,83670,795,88449,113727,113720,113721,4466,9261,761,762,158,4598,19095,37342,88118,8088,85,113718,113723,113707],"class_list":["post-175061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-adam-reynolds","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-broncos-veteran","tag-cleary-mam","tag-closed-fist-punch","tag-clutch-kick","tag-contest-flow","tag-cooper-cronk","tag-ezra-mam","tag-facebook","tag-fox-league-mam","tag-grant-atkins","tag-inc","tag-james-mckern","tag-lions-captain","tag-lorraine-carthew","tag-matthew-mcinerney","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-miracle-comeback","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-penrith-panthers","tag-preliminary-final","tag-regular-season-game","tag-rugby-league-fans","tag-sin-bin","tag-sports","tag-tim-betts","tag-touch-line","tag-v-mam-kicks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175061","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=175061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}