{"id":175717,"date":"2025-09-28T18:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/175717\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T18:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:03:09","slug":"huge-call-to-rub-sorensen-out-of-prelim-cleary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/175717\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Huge call’ to rub Sorensen out of prelim: Cleary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane’s Reece Walsh checks on Penrith’s Scott Sorensen after the Panther suffered a head knock. (Dave Hunt\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

A frustrated Ivan Cleary says it was a “huge call” to rub Scott Sorensen out of Penrith’s preliminary final loss after the forward passed a mid-game head injury assessment.<\/p>\n

But the Panthers will opt against complaining to the NRL following the 16-14 loss to Brisbane that brought their thrilling run of premierships to an end.<\/p>\n

Sorensen clashed heads with teammate Blaize Talagi in the opening two minutes of Sunday’s grand final qualifier and immediately left the field at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"Isaah
\n Isaah Yeo reflects on the end of the Panthers’ dream for a fifth straight NRL premiership. (Dave Hunt\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The NRL’s independent doctor ruled Sorensen had exhibited category-one symptoms, ruling him out of the match and the grand final, were Penrith to make it.<\/p>\n

But Sorensen passed a subsequent head injury assessment conducted by the Panthers’ medical staff and was well enough to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines.<\/p>\n

The four-time premiership winner could not return to the field, under the NRL’s concussion rules.<\/p>\n

The blow left the Panthers playing in hot conditions with one less man for almost the entirety of the contest.<\/p>\n

“It’s a huge call, especially when he passes his HIA,” Cleary said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tough one. It makes life a bit harder, for sure.”<\/p>\n

Penrith had been ready to seek an exemption to play Sorensen in the grand final, which would have fallen within the 11-day period that a category-one assessment requires a player to miss.<\/p>\n

\"Penrith
\n Penrith captain Nathan Cleary and coach Ivan Cleary front the media after the Panthers’ loss. (Dave Hunt\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

But AAP has been told the club will not query the NRL’s decision to rule Sorensen out of the game, despite the forward passing his assessment.<\/p>\n

Penrith’s tight two-point preliminary final loss came after the team had wrestled itself back into premiership contention following a dismal start to the year.<\/p>\n

The four-time reigning premiers slipped to last on the ladder after round 12, before a nine-game winning streak helped them lock up seventh spot.<\/p>\n

In premiership history, no team had ever won a finals game after sitting last so late in a season, but the Panthers won two en route to Sunday’s epic against Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Cleary was still reticent to consider the season a success, as dreams of a fifth consecutive premiership slipped away.<\/p>\n

“I’m not sure about a success. It’s still a good year,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Our start really put us under pressure, and ultimately that’s part of the season. That was not good enough. I have to take responsibility for that.<\/p>\n

“After that there was some really good stuff. Even the finals series, I thought we handled it pretty well. Lots of good stuff, but I’m not sure if I’d call it a success.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane’s Reece Walsh checks on Penrith’s Scott Sorensen after the Panther suffered a head knock. (Dave Hunt\/AAP PHOTOS)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,1348,3355,3359,3353,761,762,44,3356,3354,3357,158,85,3358,1346],"class_list":{"0":"post-175717","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-breaking-news","11":"tag-daily-news","12":"tag-global-news","13":"tag-inkl","14":"tag-national-rugby-league","15":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-news-app","18":"tag-news-headlines","19":"tag-news-today","20":"tag-nrl","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-today-news","23":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175717","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=175717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}