‘Really proud’: Penrith post biggest win in history

Jasper Bruce | June 7, 2026

Nathan Cleary has inspired NRL juggernaut Penrith to the biggest win in the club’s history – a 68-0 mauling of insipid Wests Tigers at CommBank Stadium.

State of Origin trio Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Brian To’o excelled on return from a week off to reiterate the yawning chasm between the ladder leaders and their NRL challengers in 2026.

Gun halfback Cleary shone brightest of all with three try assists and a four-pointer of his own as the Panthers rode their largest halftime lead since 2010 – 36-0 – to a huge win.

In Penrith’s only sour note, NSW representative Casey McLean will have scans on an ankle injury suffered landing awkwardly in the second half.

But club medicos were confident the injury was minor and that the 20-year-old could have returned to Sunday’s contest in a pinch.

“He’ll get a scan but I think he’s not too bad,” said coach Ivan Cleary.

Nine different Panthers scored tries against the Tigers and with six and a half minutes to play, left winger Tom Jenkins crossed for his second to push the margin beyond 60 points.

The end result surpassed a 72-12 defeat of Manly in 2004 to become the biggest Penrith have posted since entering the competition in 1967.

Penrith’s win was the equal fifth biggest in premiership history by any team, and the equal third largest in 91 years.

“It’s nice to get a win like that, just really proud of the whole team performance,” said co-captain Isaah Yeo.

“I thought we started really well, I thought we sort of earned the right, then off the back of that, you could see we were growing in confidence.”

Cleary continued his superb season with several signature moments.

He burst through the middle in the first half and found NSW captain Yeo, who crashed over the line.

From 25 metres out in the second half, Cleary bent a wonderful, pinpoint banana kick to the right wing to help To’o to his second try.

Cleary threw the last pass for Lindsay Smith to crash through in the second half, and could earlier have had another assist had a marginal cut-out ball on the right edge to To’o not been called forward.

The result was an almighty reality check for the Tigers, who were booed from the field at the break and labelled “brain dead” and “dumb with the ball” by Benji Marshall.

“I get we’re playing the top team in the league, but there are some things there that you just can’t accept,” said the Tigers coach.

“Everything in our game that we could possibly get wrong, we got wrong.

“It looked like a training run for them (Penrith).”

Five of Penrith’s six first-half tries came on the back of handling errors from the Tigers, whose first red-zone tackle was not until the second half.

The long-time strugglers’ strong start to the season now seems a lifetime ago, and injuries to Jock Madden (elbow) and Royce Hunt (pectoral) rubbed salt into the wound.

Marquee man Jarome Luai had a particularly tough afternoon, throwing an offload in his own red zone that went straight to Liam Martin, who passed on for To’o to score.

Sunday was supposed to be Tigers hooker Api Koroisau’s chance to audition for the vacancy on the NSW bench, but he had no chance to assert himself on the contest amid a Penrith onslaught.

Freddy Lussick sealed a try-scoring double in the final minutes to put the icing on the cake for the Panthers.