{"id":498826,"date":"2026-02-23T12:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498826\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T12:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:34:15","slug":"nathan-cleary-free-to-play-nrl-round-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498826\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Cleary free to play NRL round one"},"content":{"rendered":"

A relieved Nathan Cleary is saluting the legal brilliance of his father Ivan after he successfully defended the Penrith halfback at the NRL<\/a> judiciary and had him cleared to play in the Panthers’ season opener.<\/p>\n

Penrith’s father-son duo has won four premierships but can now add a judiciary scalp to their resume after they combined on Monday night to have the No. 7’s grade-two careless high tackle charge downgraded.<\/p>\n

Cleary Jr was facing a two-match ban for a high shot on Wests Tigers rookie Heamasi Makasini and risked adding another week on the sidelines by contesting the charge.<\/p>\n

The halfback rushed out of the line and made the hit as the Tigers rookie juggled the ball in Friday’s trial.<\/p>\n

But in an inspired move, Cleary Sr swapped coaching for counsel as he argued to the panel of Ryan James and Greg McCullum that his son warranted a downgrade.<\/p>\n

In a sign of how impressive Ivan Cleary’s performance was, the panel deliberated for just 12 minutes before announcing Nathan Cleary was free to face Brisbane in round one.<\/p>\n

“I definitely thank him because it’s a big effort,” Nathan Cleary said of his father.<\/p>\n

“I’m disappointed I had to put him through that little extra work that he had to do outside his normal job, but I’m grateful for his effort.<\/p>\n

“I had no say in the matter (him representing me) but he was pretty confident.<\/p>\n

“There were mixed thoughts because the last few times he’s been to the judiciary, it hasn’t worked out too well.<\/p>\n

“But I trust him and we thought that we had a pretty good case. I’m glad the panel could see that.”<\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary of the Panthers\u00a0Mark Metcalfe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Panthers have tended to use a lawyer to defend their players at the judiciary but looked within this time to great effect.<\/p>\n

After showing replays of the incident from several angles, Cleary Jr argued his decision to rush up on Makasani was done with his own preservation in mind.<\/p>\n

“If I stand back and he gets momentum and I risk becoming a speedbump,” Cleary said, adding his contact was shoulder to shoulder.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the NRL’s counsel Lachlan Gyles SC chose not to cross-examine the Penrith halfback.<\/p>\n

Gyles claimed Cleary had increased the risk in his tackle by approaching Makasini at speed.<\/p>\n

Cleary Sr agreed his son had looked to create force but had shown a duty of care by planting his feet in anticipation of the collision and making shoulder to shoulder contact.<\/p>\n

Cleary Jr escapes with a $1800 fine and can now line up against the Broncos on March 6.<\/p>\n

His inclusion is a massive boost for Penrith, who started 2025 slowly and sat bottom after 12 rounds before making the top eight.<\/p>\n

The Panthers lost a preliminary final against eventual premiers Brisbane, ending their run of four-straight premierships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A relieved Nathan Cleary is saluting the legal brilliance of his father Ivan after he successfully defended the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-498826","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\/498826","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=498826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}