{"id":14650,"date":"2025-09-10T20:59:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/14650\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T20:59:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:59:05","slug":"ivan-cleary-spills-new-details-after-panthers-rocked-by-injury-blow-for-premiership-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/14650\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Cleary spills new details after Panthers rocked by injury blow for premiership hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary<\/a> admits the hamstring injury to hooker Mitch Kenny<\/a> is worse than first thought, after the three-time premiership winner was ruled out of Saturday’s NRL<\/a> elimination final against the Warriors. The Penrith mentor joked with reporters on Wednesday about a ploy from Warriors fans to cause disruption at Penrith’s team hotel<\/a> in Auckland on game-day, but he wasn’t in a laughing mood when discussing Kenny’s absence.<\/p>\n

The experienced hooker suffered a hamstring strain against the Dragons on the weekend and is considered a week-to-week proposition after being ruled out of Saturday’s sudden-death clash. Penrith’s coach said he took Kenny off as a precaution against the Dragons, but conceded the injury is more of a concern than originally thought.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/p>\n

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary (R) has provided more details about the injury to Mitch Kenny (far left) that’s ruled the premiership star out of the NRL finals clash with the Warriors. Pic: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took Mitch off at half-time last week as more of a precaution, but he was definitely feeling something,\u201d the Panthers coach said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit worse than what we initially thought, but it\u2019s still only a minor strain.<\/p>\n

“But that\u2019s bad enough for him to not be able to play at his absolute best this week, and that\u2019s what we need. It\u2019s a fair out because Mitch has been critically important to us for a long period of time. We\u2019re trying to not focus on who\u2019s out but who\u2019s in, and \u2018Sommo\u2019 comes in and for two seasons has been good for us every time he\u2019s come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleary was referencing the club\u2019s NSW Cup Player of the Year, Luke Sommerton, who earns his the start against the Warriors in place of Kenny. While that change was forced, Cleary made the tough decision to drop the club\u2019s Members Player of the Year, Tom Jenkins, after recalling Paul Alamoti on the wing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a fun part of the job, but it\u2019s one of those things around finals time where you can\u2019t pick everyone,\u201d the Penrith coach said about the axing of Jenkins, who’s scored 13 tries this season. \u201cTom is having an amazing year and is one of the best stories of our season, so he\u2019ll be ready when he\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ivan<\/p>\n

Ivan Cleary (L) has axed Tom Jenkins (second from left) from Penrith’s sudden-death NRL finals clash with the Warriors. Image: AAP\/Getty<\/p>\n

Jenkins is better under the high ball than Alamoti but his teammate probably holds the upper hand when it comes to his defence, carries from the back and finishing. But Jenkins’ axing comes as a surprise after his impressive displays this season helped turn the Panthers’ season around.<\/p>\n

Penith are favourites in sudden-death clash with Warriors<\/p>\n

Penrith were last on the ladder after round 12 before going on a nine-game winning run to rocket back into finals and premiership contention. It’s why they head into Saturday’s clash as favourites against the Warriors, who they stunned in Auckland in round 16 without a host of Origin stars.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/p>\n

Cleary knows it’ll be tougher this time around as Penrith come up against former premiership-winner Panthers prop James Fisher-Harris. But the Penrith coach was more concerned about a ploy to disrupt the Panthers’ preparations on game-day, after a Warriors fan page on social media called for supporters to create mayhem outside the hotel the visitors are staying at in Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just worry about eggs, not Fish (Fisher-Harris),\u201d Cleary joked in reference to suggestions on the Warriors fan page to throw eggs at Cleary’s coaching box. \u201cI\u2019m not too worried. I have some experience with the Warriors fan base. They\u2019re a good-natured lot and very passionate.”<\/p>\n

The winner of the Panthers and Warriors clash will play the losing team from Friday night’s qualifying final between the Storm and Bulldogs at Melbourne’s AAMI Park. For the loser of Saturday’s sudden-death showdown in Auckland, it will be season over.<\/p>\n

with agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panthers coach Ivan Cleary admits the hamstring injury to hooker Mitch Kenny is worse than first thought, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16851,16854,111,139,69,16856,16855,16857,13180,213,16858,16852,16853,3006],"class_list":{"0":"post-14650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ivan-cleary","9":"tag-mitch-kenny","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-panthers","14":"tag-panthers-coach","15":"tag-penrith","16":"tag-premiership","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-the-panthers","19":"tag-the-warriors","20":"tag-tom-jenkins","21":"tag-warriors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}