{"id":907056,"date":"2026-09-27T05:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907056\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T05:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:58:19","slug":"nrl-2026-nathan-cleary-back-to-the-bench-as-panthers-make-late-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907056\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Nathan Cleary back to the bench as Panthers make late changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ivan Cleary has pulled a dramatic late switch with superstar halfback Nathan Cleary named to come off the bench for Penrith\u2019s preliminary final showdown with Newcastle. <\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s best player has been dealing with a foot injury he suffered in the qualifying final win over the Roosters, but he was named to start when the teams were announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>But he now looms as a potential break glass in case of emergency option with Jack Cogger to partner Jack Cole in the halves for the grand final qualifier.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear whether the representative No.7 will play any minutes, with regular starters Lindsay Smith and Isaiah Papali\u2019i also dropping to the bench.<\/p>\n<p>The Knights will run out as named. <\/p>\n<p>More to come<\/p>\n<p>Originally published as <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/nathan-cleary-to-come-off-the-bench-as-panthers-make-major-changes-for-their-preliminary-final\/news-story\/651fb2d5425f02760b41f9e164aa43b8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nathan Cleary to come off the bench as Panthers make major changes for their preliminary final<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ivan Cleary has pulled a dramatic late switch with superstar halfback Nathan Cleary named to come off the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[426738,466842,475145,475131,462573,475140,475132,64,63,2460,475141,16308,12979,394532,5098,4593,7992,4434,475134,1203,761,762,10668,158,5357,475146,16284,475144,475133,85,475142,384381,475137,475136,395523,5991,463561,475139,174850,394546,54798,475143,475138,475135],"class_list":["post-907056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-s-best-player","tag-s-preliminary-final-showdown","tag-a-dramatic-late-change","tag-a-dramatic-late-switch","tag-a-foot-injury","tag-a-potential-break-glass","tag-any-minutes","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-case","tag-emergency-option","tag-finals","tag-injuries","tag-isaiah-papalii","tag-ivan-cleary","tag-jack-cogger","tag-knights","tag-lindsay-smith","tag-major-changes","tag-nathan-cleary","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-newcastle","tag-nrl","tag-panthers","tag-partner-jack-cole","tag-penrith","tag-regular-starters","tag-shock-last-minute-bench-switch","tag-sports","tag-superstar-halfback-nathan-cleary","tag-the-bench","tag-the-bench-the-knights","tag-the-grand-final-qualifier-it","tag-the-halves","tag-the-panthers","tag-the-qualifying-final-win","tag-the-representative-no-7","tag-the-roosters","tag-the-teams","tag-the-world","tag-their-preliminary-final","tag-their-preliminary-final-clash","tag-tuesday-but"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907056","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=907056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}