No matter what happens in the NRL decider, Ivan Cleary can lay claim to being the most successful head coach in Panthers history.
With two premierships, he’s doubled the output of the only other two grand final-winning coaches for Penrith in Phil Gould and John Lang.
Cleary is at the helm of what is arguably the greatest team in the NRL era, and a win against the Broncos on Sunday will affirm that.
Watch The NRL Women’s Premiership Grand Final Live on Kayo Sports. Newcastle Knights vs Gold Coast Titans SUN 1 OCT 3:55PM AEDT. Join Kayo now and start streaming instantly >
Cleary will feature in his fifth Grand Final as a coach, fourth straight with Penrith. The other was with the Warriors in 2011.
So, despite all of this success, why does it feel like Cleary is underappreciated?
One thing that is for certain, his players certainly don’t undervalue him.
“Two words. Ivan Cleary,” Panthers back rower Scott Sorensen answered when asked why the club has been so successful of late.
“The way he’s built the culture and the team here and the buy-in from all the boys. It starts from the top and I feel like it’s as simple as that.”
“He’s extremely smart, but then gives a lot of trust to his players as well and I feel like this group doesn’t take that for granted either, they know it doesn’t happen at every club that the coach instils so much trust in them, but Ivan does so we try and pay that back with our performances,” Panthers co-captain Isaah Yeo said.
“Obviously there’s been different challenges at the start of each year, especially at the start of the last few seasons with losing players, losing coaching staff and all that sort of stuff and I feel like he hasn’t put a foot wrong with the people he has brought in.
“He’s been tremendous for this group and tremendous for myself as well.”
Foxsports.com.au delves into Cleary’s coaching journey, the rise of the Panthers and the path that led him to being just 80 minutes away from becoming the fourth-ever coach in the compulsory Grand Final era (since 1954) to win three straight premierships.
GETTING HIS START
Cleary played 186 games in the NRL for the Sea Eagles, North Sydney, Roosters and the Warriors. It was as soon as he retired that he began his coaching career, guiding the Roosters to a NSW Cup premiership in 2004.
Not two seasons later, he would return to New Zealand with the Warriors as Cleary took on his first NRL head coaching job from the beginning of the 2006 season.
Cleary spent six years at the helm of the Warriors, guiding them to their maiden grand final appearance in 2011.
Fox League’s Brent Tate played under Cleary at the Warriors for three of those seasons (2008-2010) and believes his former coach deserves “more credit” for the job he’s done at the Panthers.
“He had a lot of success at the Warriors too, while he didn’t win a grand final there. It was a really tricky group,” Tate told foxsports.com.au.
“I was playing at the Warriors when Ivan was there and sort of managing the different cultures and bringing everyone together, he did a wonderful job.
“That was early on his career and he’s obviously grown a lot more since then and gone to the Panthers and taken what’s a wonderful system but you still have to put the icing on the cake and be a great motivator and man manager.
“The discipline it takes to play in grand finals is huge and it’s all driven by Ivan. I don’t think he gets enough credit for what he’s done there. The way he cares for his players I think it shines through in the results they’ve had.”
Cleary’s Warriors would lose to the Sea Eagles in the 2011 decider before he joined the Panthers the very next season, which was ironic considering his last game for the Warriors as a player was also a grand final loss (2002).
MORE NRL NEWS
TOP 10 NRL GF MOMENTS: Benji’s flick pass; Burgess’ heroics; Thurston field goal
GF PREDICTION: Where the decider will be won or lost
‘THERE ARE JEALOUS PEOPLE’: Kevvie responds after ugly Walsh sledge to fan
Who will replace Fittler as Blues coach? | 01:20
FIRST STINT IN PENRITH
Cleary arrived at the foot of the mountains in 2012 attempting to turn around the fortunes of a team that finished 12th the previous year.
It would take him three seasons to take Penrith to the finals, with the Panthers finishing in the top four and reaching a preliminary final. They would lose that game against the Bulldogs 18-12.
Still, it was quite the turnaround in three years and didn’t go unnoticed, with Cleary awarded the Coach of the Year that season. However, that would be the apex of Cleary’s first tenure at Penrith.
After a disappointing 2015 campaign, the coach’s contract was terminated.
Penrith CEO Brian Fletcher this week sensationally revealed that Cleary was sacked by Phil Gould, who at the time was the Panthers General Manager.
“He wasn’t actually sacked by the club, he was actually sacked by Phil Gould,” Fletcher told 2DAY FM’s Hughesy, Ed and Erin.
“When asked if it was the wrong decision, Fletcher replied: “Well, it looks like it.”
The Wests Tigers were the next coaching destination for Cleary, who signed a four-year deal with the club shortly after the start of the 2017 season.
After just two seasons at Concord, he would unceremoniously depart the Tigers after the 2018 campaign – labelled ‘disgraceful’ by outspoken former player Benny Elias – to head back to the Panthers on a five-year deal
Penrith great and Deputy Chairman Greg Alexander said the decision to re-hire Cleary, ultimately linking him up with his son and emerging halfback Nathan, was an easy one.
“In the end it wasn’t really a hard decision to make,” Alexander told foxsports.com.au.
“The club just had to make sure that it was all going to happen. Just about everyone thought that Ivan was the right man to come back and continue coaching at Penrith and that’s certainly how it’s turned out.”
BUILDING A DYNASTY
Barring his short stint at the Tigers, Cleary has been able to achieve a sharp turnaround at all of his coaching jobs.
Arriving in Penrith in 2019, the club had just come off a fifth placed finish on the ladder which resulted in a semi final exit.
Things didn’t get off to a rosy start for Cleary though, with the Panthers missing the finals in 2019.
That would be the only hiccup though to date, with four straight grand finals following in the subsequent seasons.
Can Brisbane tame Panthers’ forwards? | 02:18
Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!
A win on Sunday against Brisbane, and the Panthers will be the first team in 40 years to collect three straight premierships since Parramatta in the 1980s.
This is despite the club losing a number of key players along the way due to salary cap restraints, a list that includes Kurt Capewell, Matt Burton, Api Koroisau, Viliame Kikau, J’Maine Hopgood and Sean O’Sullivan.
Alexander says this is a fact that musn’t be forgotten.
“It’s rare. Not many have been able to do it. Certainly no one has been able to do it since the Eels and we haven’t won but four grand finals straight says that. That’s where sides fall over,” Alexanders said.
“We’ve seen many premiers before, for some reason, not able to do the job the following year. I think a lot of it boils down to they don’t all of a sudden become worst players.
“There are clubs that didn’t lose players throughout their premiership seasons going into the next season, unlike Penrith have. There are some sides that didn’t lose a host of players and still weren’t able to do the job.
“So, what is the difference? The difference is that the coach has been able to keep them focused and hungry and keep them improving and change things necessarily if they had to.
“That’s the key to his success, his ability to lose key players and still be able to have this team playing as good as they have to win another minor premiership and now be in their fourth season of success.”
Brent Tate believes Cleary’s experience at the Warriors and the Panthers his first time around has done wonders into making him the coach he is today, even comparing him to the most successful coach of the modern era — Wayne Bennett.
“I think sometimes you learn more from the tough times than when you do when you’re at the top. I think certainly the learnings from being over there and having a pretty diverse culture group at the Panthers as well, I think he’s a perfect fit for them,” Tate said.
“Those guys think differently. It does become about winning premierships but it’s also about making young men who have dreams and want to be successful, like we’ve heard Wayne say in the past, about getting them to a point where they can realise their goals.
“I think it becomes a bit of a different focus but if you get that part right inevitably and you get good people around that, you do win comps. It’s been a formula that Wayne and Craig (Bellamy) have used over a long time and Ivan has sort of got that formula.
Tate went onto say that Cleary’s ability to get the “best out of” this Penrith group has been just an important a factor as anything else.
“I think Ivan’s just worked out the group of players he’s got and how to get the best out of them,” Tate said.
“That’s easier said than done. It’s easy to say you’ve got some good players but to keep the Panthers at the top of their game for four seasons and make crucial decisions along the way which every coach does, but Ivan’s been able to get those decisions right.
“I think he’s just worked out exactly what it is to win games, what it needs, what your focus needs to be to win games and how to implement that with a group of players.”
MORE NRL NEWS
WHERE ‘O6 BRONCOS ARE NOW: Prop turned lifesaver; club greats working mines EPIC BLUNDER: Souths reversed two teams’ fates. Now for Reynolds’ ultimate revenge
LIFELINE: Panthers’ unsung hero admits a job at the wharf awaited before Ivan
Panthers wary of Broncos’ powerful pack | 00:45
WHAT MAKES IVAN GREAT?
Despite the recent run of success, the Panthers seemingly remain as determined as ever to stay at the top and don’t take anything for granted
Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards says a lot of that comes back to Cleary, who does a great job of keeping the group hungry.
“The values that we have within the club. The want to get better is important and he drives that,” Edwards told foxsports.com.au.
“If anything sort of seems to waver, he’s onto it pretty quickly which is important. Not that it does really, but he would be up to it if it did.”
It’s a testament to Cleary, who like Edwards, is the ultimate quiet achiever in a team full of bold personalities. For Yeo, “even-keeled” was the perfect word to describe his coach.
“He doesn’t give too much away,” the Panthers co-captain said.
Tate provided a similar assessment when asked why he believed Cleary has been able to be so successful.
“I think the level of care they show for their players and genuine care. I think players can see through when a coach doesn’t care about them and I think they can see through when they do,” he said.
“I think being calm in all situations, one of the great things looking back over having Wayne and Ivan is they’re still the same if you’ve won 10 in a row or lost [that many] in a row. Their demeanour doesn’t change and their coaching philosophy doesn’t change.
“I think that’s a real credit to both their personalities where it’s level, whether you’re winning or losing, it doesn’t change. It’s all about caring for the players, sticking to the process and if you work hard more than often than not when you have the right people you get the result.”
With a win on Sunday, Cleary will join Wayne Bennett (4), Trent Robinson and Craig Bellamy as the only coaches of the NRL era (1998) to win at least three premierships.
Who knows, with this Panthers team not appearing to be slowing down anytime soon, Ivan could surpass the super coach in just a couple of years.
#Panthers #Broncos #Ivan #Cleary #greatest #coach #NRL #history #Panthers #dynasty #rugby #league #news #reaction
