Cleary at peace with Panthers’ Origin travel dilemma
Jasper Bruce |
Ivan Cleary is moving on from the State of Origin fixturing quirk that has denied Penrith’s five NSW representatives the chance to line up against the Warriors.
Saturday’s clash marks the first time an NRL team has been forced to travel to Auckland within a week of an Origin match in Perth.
Perth’s previous two Origin matches were held on a Sunday in 2019 and 2022, with Penrith and Wests Tigers enjoying a seven-day turnaround before playing across the ditch in those cases.
But the Panthers’ round-16 clash with the third-placed Warriors comes less than three days after full-time in Queensland’s two-point win in Origin II on Wednesday.
Penrith feared their five Origin representatives would struggle to back up in such a short window, given they would be on an international flight of more than six hours after also missing training during the week.
Coach Cleary also had to consider a five-day turnaround into next week’s clash against high flying Canterbury in Sydney.
NSW representatives Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo, Brian To’o, Dylan Edwards and Liam Martin all flew straight back from Perth to Sydney and will miss the game against the Warriors.
The Auckland side’s only Origin representative, former Panther Kurt Capewell, is also being rested after a brilliant comeback game for Queensland.
After the win over Wests Tigers last week, Cleary was critical of the NRL’s decision to schedule a game in Auckland so soon after an Origin match on the other side of Australia.
But Cleary was resigned to his team’s fate by Friday morning.
“It’s just one of those things, I guess,” he said.
“It must be difficult figuring out the draw and everyone’s got their own hard luck story.
“It is what it is, it’s not just this game, we’ve got a five-day turnaround next week so that was part of it (the thinking) as well.”
The game is the Panthers’ first in Auckland since June 2019, before their run of five consecutive grand final appearances and four straight premierships.
That match was so long ago that Yeo was still playing centre, Frank Winterstein was starting in the second row and Stephen Crichton had not yet made his NRL debut.
Cleary said after so long, it was “a little unfortunate” the Auckland crowd would not have the chance to watch the Panthers’ star contingent at work.
“We haven’t played here for six years so they (New Zealand-based fans) haven’t seen any of our team through that pretty good period,” he said.
The ninth-placed Panthers won their two games leading into the round 15 bye and are beginning to reassert themselves on the competition following a poor start to the year.
Clashes with the Warriors and Bulldogs will prove a litmus test.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve turned the corner,” Cleary said.
“(But) we’ve definitely been playing better and it looks a little bit more like we want it to look.”
AAP
