Nathan Cleary has done it again.<\/p>\n
The ice man nailed an 85th-minute field goal to clinch Penrith a thrilling 23-22 win over the gallant Dolphins in golden point.<\/p>\n
The Panthers lost Mitch Kenny to a broken leg in a sour note to Friday night’s match at Darwin’s TIO Stadium in oppressive heat.<\/p>\n
Cleary landed a golden-point field goal in 2024 against the Dolphins to secure a 28-26 win and he was their nemesis again.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins came back from an 18-0 deficit at halftime to rock the competition leaders and lead 22-18.<\/p>\n
Panthers winger Thomas Jenkins became the first player in premiership history to score try doubles in seven straight games.<\/p>\n
Nathan Cleary nailed an 85th-minute field goal to clinch Penrith a thrilling 23-22 win over the gallant Dolphins in golden point.\u00a0Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
His second try in the 76th minute levelled it up at 22-22, but Cleary was unable to land the sideline conversion.<\/p>\n
Dolphins half Isaiya Katoa missed a long-range 83rd minute field-goal attempt, but Cleary did not miss his from right in front.<\/p>\n
Kenny, who was in contention for the NSW No.9 jersey, was taken to hospital in the 18th minute after he was injured in a hip-drop tackle by Dolphins five-eighth Kodi Nikorima, who was sin-binned.<\/p>\n
The Panthers dominated the first half, with big-name stars Cleary, Dylan Edwards and Isaah Yeo in the ascendancy and they appeared to be cruising.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins, inspired by centre Herbie Farnworth, rocketed back into it with four tries in 15 minutes to take the lead.<\/p>\n
The England international conjured up two one-on-one ball steals, the second on Panther winger Brian To’o after the break, which turned the game.<\/p>\n
Farnworth weaved his way over for an athletic try.<\/p>\n
Dazzling fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow notched a trademark long-range four-pointer, and winger Selwyn Cobbo, who had a wretched first half, bullocked over out wide.<\/p>\n
When centre Jake Averillo sliced over, the Dolphins had turned the game on its head.<\/p>\n
The defence of the Dolphins was much improved on their 52-18 loss to Manly before they had a bye. The Panthers applied the blowtorch early in the match.<\/p>\n
Cleary sliced through and his reliable partner in havoc Edwards, who threw Cleary the initial pass, backed up to score.<\/p>\n
The Panthers made the most of the extra man, with Cleary sending halves partner Blaize Talagi over.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins had their chances but errors let them down, despite the best efforts of Farnworth.<\/p>\n
Talagi set up try-scoring whiz Jenkins with a pinpoint bomb that the winger leapt high to snaffle and score on the cusp of halftime.<\/p>\n
The second half was a humdinger, thanks to the Dolphins’ enterprise.<\/p>\n
Cleary had the final say, as he so often does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nathan Cleary has done it again. The ice man nailed an 85th-minute field goal to clinch Penrith a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-613033","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-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613033","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=613033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}