{"id":492625,"date":"2026-02-20T15:05:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T15:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/492625\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T15:05:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T15:05:47","slug":"why-nathan-cleary-is-in-doubt-for-penrith-panthers-opener-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/492625\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Nathan Cleary is in doubt for Penrith Panthers\u2019 opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Makasini bounced back to his feet and was able to play on. The 18-year-old sealed the left-wing spot after an excellent performance, which included a couple of barnstorming runs down the touchline in the Tigers 26-12 win.<\/p>\n

He was stopped by fullback Dylan Edwards on one occasion, but then ran straight over the representative No. 1 a second time to score. The four-pointer will not be forgotten any time soon by those inside the inner-western Sydney venue. The try came six days after he bagged a hat-trick in a trial against the Roosters.<\/p>\n

\"Heamasi<\/p>\n

Heamasi Makasini scored an excellent try for the Wests Tigers.Credit: NRL Photos<\/p>\n

The Tigers left edge of Jarome Luai, Samuela Fainu, Taylan May and Makasini will rack up their share of points this year if they can all stay fit.<\/p>\n

Tigers coach Benji Marshall was unsure whether to play most of his big guns, considering they do not play for another three weeks because of a round-one bye. But the pleasing hit out against a genuine premiership contender in Penrith will give them plenty of confidence.<\/p>\n

Tigers halfback Adam Doueihi was busy early, and laid on the first try for Jahream Bula, while Panthers backrower \u2013 and former Tiger \u2013 Isaiah Papali\u2019i got through a mountain of work early.<\/p>\n

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary and his assistants were forced to watch the game in the outdoor press area after a rogue airconditioning unit left the coaches\u2019 box unbearably cold.<\/p>\n

In the earlier trial, a 38-34 win by the Dolphins over the Warriors, two players were binned, including Jacob Host for a hip-drop tackle on Selwyn Cobbo.<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Makasini bounced back to his feet and was able to play on. The 18-year-old sealed the left-wing spot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-492625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492625","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=492625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}