{"id":176064,"date":"2025-09-28T21:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T21:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/176064\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T21:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T21:35:07","slug":"ivan-cleary-says-nrl-doctors-decision-to-rule-scott-sorensen-out-of-preliminary-final-was-a-huge-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/176064\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Cleary says NRL doctor’s decision to rule Scott Sorensen out of preliminary final was a ‘huge call’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A frustrated Ivan Cleary says it was a “huge call” to rub Scott Sorensen out of Penrith’s preliminary final loss<\/a> 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 2 minutes of Sunday’s grand final qualifier and immediately left the field at Suncorp Stadium.<\/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

How Reynolds’s game-winning moment played out<\/a><\/p>\n

Adam Reynolds took the kicking tee from the Broncos’ biggest star in the biggest moment of their season so far, and it paid off in the biggest way possible.<\/p>\n

But it is now believed 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

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A frustrated Ivan Cleary says it was a “huge call” to rub Scott Sorensen out of Penrith’s preliminary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,4428,40101,90893,761,762,158,4598,4476,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-176064","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-brisbane-broncos","11":"tag-concussion","12":"tag-hia","13":"tag-national-rugby-league","14":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","15":"tag-nrl","16":"tag-penrith-panthers","17":"tag-scott-sorensen","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176064","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=176064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}