{"id":706415,"date":"2026-05-31T14:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T14:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706415\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T14:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T14:07:15","slug":"nrl-2026-ivan-cleary-says-casey-mclean-was-the-difference-against-the-warriors-panthers-press-conference-what-did-he-say-news-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706415\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Ivan Cleary says Casey McLean was the difference against the Warriors, panthers press conference, what did he say, news, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Other than perhaps Raiders star Ethan Strange, it\u2019s hard to think of any player who has had a better week than Casey McLean.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Strange starred for the Blues in his Origin debut before backing up with a faultless performance in a Canberra win. <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

McLean meanwhile also debuted for New South Wales last Wednesday, impressing in a brief cameo off the bench. He then was the only Panthers Origin rep to back up four days later.<\/p>\n

In a win over the Warriors, the 20-year-old was sensational<\/a>, scoring two tries in the first half. He then produced the game-sealing play, forcing a Taine Tuaupiki error inside the final 90 seconds with a terrific try-saving tackle.<\/p>\n

The young gun delivered an hilarious moment post-game, explaining why he backed up but Blues and Panthers teammates Brian To\u2019o, Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about your Origin teammates, why didn\u2019t they play. Your two captains just said no,\u201d NRL great Bryan Fletcher asked McLean on Sunday Night with Matty Johns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got told (the reason why he\u2019s playing) at training \u2018because I\u2019m still young\u2019 and I was like fair enough,\u201d McLean said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

McLean only played a touch over 20 minutes in Origin, but his impact on the wing was noticeable.<\/p>\n

Four days later, he would be Penrith\u2019s best against a Warriors team who were sitting second on the ladder after six straight wins.<\/p>\n

According to Penrith coach Ivan Cleary, McLean was the \u201cdifference\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of what he did (tonight) he was probably the difference. He was outstanding… He was the last standing for us tonight\u201d Cleary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping after Wednesday night that he would get a little extra momentum, which is kind of what it looked like.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he likes playing against his Kiwi mates, so he was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warriors fall short of biggest scalp | 05:40<\/p>\n

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The sky\u2019s the limit for McLean, who turned 20 just last month but has already played 40 first grade games (23 tries) and an Origin. <\/p>\n

Cleary is excited about what the future holds for the outside back, revealing the trait which has helped McLean hit the ground running at such a young age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got asked about him playing on the wing a few weeks back, I know he\u2019s played there but he hasn\u2019t done pretty much any reps. He then goes out in the pouring rain (for NSW) and just attacked everything,\u201d Cleary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad he plays for us. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he first debuted, he was an 18-year-old… Not too many things bother him, I don\u2019t think. <\/p>\n

\u201dHe\u2019s just always been a good player and each level he goes to, he seems to be able to pick it up pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Other than perhaps Raiders star Ethan Strange, it\u2019s hard to think of any player who has had a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,10122,4438,4591,300300,5094,343685,1203,761,762,673,158,677,343684,343686,85,5080,17939,9020],"class_list":["post-706415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bryan-fletcher","tag-casey-mclean","tag-dylan-edwards","tag-hilarious-moment","tag-isaah-yeo","tag-ladder-clash-win","tag-nathan-cleary","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-south-wales","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-panthers-star","tag-pouring-rain","tag-sports","tag-stand-in-skipper","tag-young-age","tag-young-gun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706415","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=706415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}