{"id":498668,"date":"2026-02-23T10:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498668\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T10:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:43:12","slug":"panthers-captain-free-to-play-in-nrl-season-opener-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498668\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers captain free to play in NRL season opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nathan Cleary is free to play in Penrith\u2019s mouthwatering season-opener against premiers Brisbane after Panthers coach Ivan Cleary successfully represented his son in a hearing at the NRL judiciary.<\/p>\n

Not since the late Bob Fulton represented his son Scott during the late 1990s has a father-son duo fronted the judiciary, but the Clearys successfully argued for a downgrade and $1800 fine of Nathan\u2019s high shot on Wests Tigers prodigy Heamasi Makasini<\/a> last Friday night.<\/p>\n

In matching black jackets, dress shirts and chinos (with football CEO Matt Cameron, football manager Shane Elford and media manager Michael Blok also attending in matching outfits), Ivan won over the judiciary panel after 38 minutes of evidence, arguing that Nathan\u2019s hit was initially to Makasini\u2019s shoulder and warranted a reduction from the initial Grade 2 charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed I had to put him through that little extra work that he had to do outside his normal job, but I\u2019m grateful for his effort,\u201d the halfback grinned after his father\u2019s successful defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no say in the matter [him representing me], but he was pretty confident. There were mixed thoughts because the last few times he\u2019s been to the judiciary, it hasn\u2019t worked out too well. But I trust him, and we thought that we had a pretty good case. I\u2019m glad the panel could see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clearys illustrated their point to judiciary panellists Ryan James and Greg McCallum with three still shots of Nathan making initial contact of \u201cright shoulder to right shoulder\u201d, as the champion playmaker explained his rush out of the line to ensure he didn\u2019t become a defensive \u201cspeed bump\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Panthers<\/p>\n

Panthers trio Nathan Cleary, media manager Michael Blok and coach-turned lawyer Ivan Cleary.Credit: NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at [Makasini] and he is looking at me, which I believe is why he juggled the ball,\u201d Nathan said as footage of the contact was replayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI deliberately lowered my arm because if I didn\u2019t, I believe I would have hit him in the head. I believe the contact was shoulder to shoulder. I also hit the ball and that\u2019s why it was dislodged.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nathan Cleary is free to play in Penrith\u2019s mouthwatering season-opener against premiers Brisbane after Panthers coach Ivan Cleary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-498668","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\/498668","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=498668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}