{"id":862295,"date":"2026-08-20T18:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T18:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/862295\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T18:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T18:26:13","slug":"nrl-2026-ivan-cleary-press-conference-fumes-over-controversial-liam-martin-sin-bin-call-penrith-panthers-vs-melbourne-storm-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/862295\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Ivan Cleary press conference, fumes over controversial Liam Martin sin bin call, Penrith Panthers vs Melbourne Storm, nrl news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ivan Cleary has slammed the decision to send Liam Martin to the sin bin against the Melbourne Storm, with the Panthers coach labelling the call as \u201creally harsh\u201d.<\/p>\n

Minutes before the half-time break, Martin was given his marching orders after being penalised for a professional foul on opposing fullback Sua Fa\u2019alogo.<\/p>\n

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As Fa\u2019alogo attempted to burst through a gap in the defence and chase after his own kick, Martin appeared to close the gap on the Storm star. <\/p>\n

However, Cleary was left stunned by the decision, questioning whether Martin\u2019s action warranted a stint in the sin bin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty harsh, like really harsh,\u201d Cleary said post-match after his side held on to a 22-14 win at AAMI Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand. That\u2019s not a professional foul. It\u2019s pretty clear to me but it\u2019s been happening (and) coming for a while. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a few of those, I reckon, but anyway it\u2019s not my business.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they\u2019re big calls because they make a huge difference in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: Confused Storm star\u2019s message to NRL after big Bunker call<\/a><\/p>\n

Panthers remain in the hunt for 1st | 06:18<\/p>\n

The Panthers coach doubled down on his criticism of the decision, arguing that Martin\u2019s actions were not deliberate and therefore did not warrant the professional foul ruling.<\/p>\n

He also suggested the decision could have cost Penrith the game, with his side forced to defend for extended periods while down a man.<\/p>\n

\u201cA professional foul is actually a deliberate act. That wasn\u2019t, obviously. I don\u2019t want to sit here and be a victim of the referees because you can\u2019t control that,\u201d Cleary added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough night for us in that respect. As I said it had a huge impact on the possession and field position and trying to defend all that with 12 men for a lot of the second half, and 11 for a while there too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes it difficult. It was similar to a game against the Broncos a few weeks ago where we just had no ball, no field position.<\/p>\n

\u201cLost that one but we\u2019re able to hang on tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ivan Cleary has slammed the decision to send Liam Martin to the sin bin against the Melbourne Storm,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-862295","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\/862295","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=862295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}