{"id":882366,"date":"2026-09-06T18:30:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882366\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T18:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:30:44","slug":"penrith-win-sixth-minor-premiership-and-set-up-finals-showdown-with-roosters-the-western-weekender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882366\/","title":{"rendered":"Penrith win sixth Minor Premiership and set up Finals showdown with Roosters \u2022 The Western Weekender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Penrith Panthers have been crowned NRL Minor Premiers. Photo: NRL Photos.<\/p>\n

The Penrith Panthers have won their fourth NRL Minor Premiership in just seven seasons, again cementing their status as the greatest rugby league team of the modern era.<\/p>\n

The Panthers demolished the Tigers 38-10 at CommBank Stadium this afternoon to ensure they went past the Warriors and finished on top of the competition after 27 rounds.<\/p>\n

The match was over at half-time with Penrith enjoying a 26-0 lead on a sunny spring afternoon in front of more than 18,000 fans.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Panthers are presented the JJ Giltinan Shield. Photo: NRL Photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so cool to get a trophy and after a long season to be sitting at the top feels really good,\u201d Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just confirms you\u2019ve done a lot of things right over a long period of time. We\u2019ve had a really good year. It started off so well and coming out of Origin it was a bit inconsistent, but it was good to go through that as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had two years playing out of our spiritual home ground as well and I think that\u2019s a pretty good effort as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Nathan Cleary with the JJ Giltinan Shield. Photo: NRL Photos.<\/p>\n

It is the sixth time the Panthers have won the JJ Giltinan Shield. The side will now set its sights on winning a seventh Premiership.<\/p>\n

Climbing that mountain will begin at CommBank Stadium next Sunday afternoon with Penrith to play the Sydney Roosters at 4.05pm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like our end to the season has been good. We\u2019ve had a really good six weeks of good hard footy against good teams,\u201d Cleary said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Panthers celebrate a try against the Tigers. Photo: NRL Photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great time of year and I\u2019m really grateful that we\u2019re still playing and we have a good shot at another title.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Finals will get underway on Friday night when Souths host Newcastle in an Elimination Final at Allianz Stadium at 7.50pm.<\/p>\n

The Warriors will play the Dolphins on Saturday afternoon at Go Media Stadium followed by the Sharks taking on the Cowboys at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Then it\u2019s the Panthers and Roosters on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"\"Nathan Cleary in action against Wests. Photo: NRL Photos.<\/p>\n

Co-captain Nathan Cleary said he\u2019s looking forward to playing his first Finals match at CommBank Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this place is full it\u2019s a great stadium,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully next Sunday we can fill it right up and put on a pretty good show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A party atmosphere for the Panthers at CommBank. Photo: NRL Photos.<\/p>\n

ARLC Chairman Peter V\u2019landys said an exciting Finals series is ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NRL Telstra Premiership 2026 regular season has been the most attended and most watched ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell over four million people attended Premiership matches and more than 150 million people watched our Premiership games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minor Premiership came down to the final match in the final round of the regular season. Congratulations to Penrith Panthers on a fourth minor premiership in seven years.<\/p>\n

\"\"Penrith fans at CommBank Stadium. Photo: NRL Photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game is in a brilliant position. It is the number one sport in Australia and the Pacific and is continuing to grow in Australia, New Zealand and in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has never been more popular and our fans will be rewarded with a Finals Series filled with highlights from the best athletes on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets will be on sale for all Week One matches to the competing clubs\u2019 ticketed members at 10am AEST on Monday (September 7), followed by competing clubs\u2019 non-ticketed members and NRL Account Holders at 4pm AEST on Monday.<\/p>\n

Finals Series tickets will be on sale to General Public at 10am AEST on Tuesday (September 8) at http:\/\/www.nrl.com\/tickets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Troy Dodds is the Weekender’s Managing Editor and Breaking News Reporter. He has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working with some of Australia’s leading media organisations. In 2023, he was named Editor of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Penrith Panthers have been crowned NRL Minor Premiers. Photo: NRL Photos. The Penrith Panthers have won their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-882366","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\/882366","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=882366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}