But for the first time since they broke their title drought in 2021, they are not the defending premiers.<\/p>\n
They have a much healthier roster heading into the season compared to last year and as usual, their hopes of going all the way hinge on Nathan Cleary\u2019s fitness.<\/p>\n
Cleary managed just 13 matches last year due mainly to a lingering groin injury and the Panthers were unable to overcome a painfully slow start to the year to complete a fifth straight premiership win.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how their team is shaping up for Round 1.<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s new?<\/p>\n
The Panthers have added a couple of players who will be in contention for the bench utility spot in ex-Warriors hooker Freddy Lussick and Jack Cogger, who performed that role in their 2023 grand final win over Brisbane, has returned to the club after two seasons in Newcastle.<\/p>\n
They have picked up another couple of Warriors to add to their forward depth in prop Tom Ale and Kalani Going, a 29-year-old State Cup journeyman with one NRL appearance to his name.<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s gone?<\/p>\n
Of the five players with first-grade experience who have left the club, none of them would be in their first-choice line-up.<\/p>\n
Back-up forward Mavrik Geyer has joined the Wests Tigers while the other four players were back-up options for their spine.<\/p>\n
Daine Laurie has switched to the Raiders, Brad Schneider is at the Dolphins, Luke Sommerton is seeking more game time on the Gold Coast and Trent Toelau will be a depth option for Craig Bellamy\u2019s halves at the Storm.<\/p>\n
![\"AUCKLAND,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2235157125-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Nathan Cleary is tackled. (Photo by Phil Walter\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Key spots to unlock?<\/p>\n
Ivan Cleary does not have too many selection queries heading into the season opener against the Broncos in Brisbane on March 6.<\/p>\n
Lussick is likely to be used more than Cogger as the bench utility but with six players to be used on the interchange this year, they will both probably be in the 19-man game-day line-up when the team is fully fit.<\/p>\n
Liam Henry is developing into one of Penrith\u2019s most impactful forwards so Cleary may use him and Isiaah Papali\u2019i in the starting side ahead of Lindsay Smith, as he did occasionally last season.<\/p>\n
Blaize Talagi came on in leaps and bounds at five-eighth as the 2025 campaign wore on and with a solid pre-season under his belt alongside Nathan Cleary, the Penrith halves will be much more settled this time around.<\/p>\n
Round 1 predicted team<\/p>\n
1 Dylan Edwards
2 Brian To\u2019o
3 Casey McLean
4 Izack Tago
5 Paul Alamoti
6 Blaize Talagi
7 Nathan Cleary
8 Lindsay Smith
9 Mitch Kenny
10 Moses Leota
11 Scott Sorensen
12 Liam Martin
13 Isaah Yeo
Interchange
14 Freddy Lussick
15 Isaiah Papali\u2019i
16 Liam Henry
17 Luke Garner
18 Jack Cogger
19 Jesse McLean<\/p>\n
Other squad members: Billy Scott, Jack Cole, Jaxen Edgar, Kalani Going, Luron Patea, Matt Eisenhuth, Tom Jenkins, Sione Fonua, Tom Ale \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size As part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,952,5098,1203,761,762,158,159,85],"class_list":["post-419802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-featured","tag-ivan-cleary","tag-nathan-cleary","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419802","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=419802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}