Penrith Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has acknowledged that he felt the grand final against the Brisbane Broncos would be a lost cause until a remarkable comeback in the final 20 minutes.
Nathan Cleary would eventually ignite the Panthers into action, as they rallied from a 16-point deficit in the final 18 minutes to win their third consecutive premiership.
The coach stated after the game that while he thought the game was over, there was still time on the clock and that his team would never give up battling.
“A large part of me was leaning that way [that we were leaving].” One thing I’ve never questioned is these boys’ ability to fight on. It’s just one of those games in which you get one back and everything changes. “There was still a long way to go, and I think that was the important part,” the coach stated following the game.
I don’t think we would have come back if they had gotten up 24-8 with 15 minutes to go or anything, but there was just enough time to make them nervous. They didn’t play as much football when they went ahead and we started catching up. They seemed to be zinging it around the entire time with offloads and getting it wide; they are an absolute handful.
“But once we got some possession, we had a chance.”
Nathan Cleary, a Clive Churchill medalist, said it was all about getting back into the arm wrestle before thinking about a return.
“I wasn’t thinking that far ahead at the time, but we were just trying to stop the flood.” We just wanted to get back into that arm wrestling, and after we got one, it turned into two, and before I knew it, I looked up at the clock, and we were down by four. “That’s when I started to believe,” the halfback explained.
The comeback came after Brisbane opened the floodgates after halftime, bolting to a 24-8 lead thanks to Ezra Mam’s hat-trick.
The Broncos, who had none of the running in the first half, had managed to head into the main break just two points behind with an 8-6 scoreline despite defending their own tryline for much of it.
Despite that, Cleary said his side looked tired as they struggled to build a lead.
“The first half, I think most teams would have been up more than 8-0, but they just weren’t going away. Not just that, but when they got the ball back, they were striking. They seemed to back themselves from all over the field and that took more gas out of our tank than normal. We were more tired than I have seen for ages,” Cleary added.
The Panthers’ premiership means they become the first team of the NRL era to win three straight premierships.
Despite the incredible scenes and the fact he has “never felt so under the pump”, that it wasn’t any more special than the other two in their run.
