The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Seriously Gus, was Ivan Cleary hard done by?

Roar Guru
19th October, 2015
Advertisement
Ivan Cleary might be back off to Penrith. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Wayne Drought)
Roar Guru
19th October, 2015
48
2187 Reads

With no Four Nations tournament scheduled this year, this was shaping as one of the more uneventful off-seasons in recent NRL history.

But on Monday afternoon, the Penrith Panthers dropped a bombshell by announcing the sacking of head coach Ivan Cleary with one season remaining on his contract.

Former Brisbane Broncos coach Anthony Griffin looks set to take over.

Cleary becomes the third coach to be given his marching orders this year after Rick Stone (Newcastle Knights) and Geoff Toovey (Manly Sea Eagles), having presided over a poor if injury-ravaged season for the Panthers.

It comes 12 months after he took the club to within one match of an improbable grand final berth, when they were stopped in their tracks by the Canterbury Bulldogs in the preliminary final.

On the back of their stunning surge in 2014, a lot was to be expected from the Panthers in the season just passed, but after victories over the Bulldogs and Gold Coast Titans in the first two rounds, it all started to unravel.

Injuries to key players such as Matt Moylan, Brent Kite, Peter Wallace and Jamie Soward, among others, brought about the swift downfall of the club to the point where entering the final round of the regular season, they were second last on the ladder, only ahead of the Newcastle Knights – whom they were to play in that round – on percentage.

Eventually the Panthers avoided what would have been their third wooden spoon since the turn of the millennium, winning 30-12 at home. The result saw them finish 11th on the ladder with nine wins and a points differential of negative 78.

Advertisement

A last-placed finish for the club would have been the worst single-season reversal since the Gold Coast Titans crashed from home preliminary finalists in 2010 to wooden spooners the following year.

This year was the third in four seasons the Panthers failed to make the finals under Cleary, and the ninth in the last 11 years dating back to 2004.

Given the club’s pre-season expectations, this season was a failure, resulting in Cleary’s dismissal.

Griffin’s impending appointment sees him return to NRL coaching 12 months after he was sacked as Broncos coach in favour of Wayne Bennett, who took the club to this year’s grand final.

He resumes his coaching career with a winning percentage of just 53 per cent, the low figure caused by the Broncos’ worst-ever season in 2013. He did, however, take the club to a preliminary final in 2011 before losing to eventual premiers the Sea Eagles.

As for the deposed Cleary, reports that he would return to the New Zealand Warriors, whom he took to that grand final four seasons ago, have been rubbished, with his old club having already finalised their coaching panel for 2016.

It appears the former Roosters and Warriors fullback will pause his coaching career having taken the Warriors to the finals four times during his six-year tenure there. The Warriors would have also made the finals in 2006, Cleary’s first season as coach, had they not been stripped of four premiership points before the start of the season for salary cap breaches.

Advertisement

In 2011, Cleary was released from his Warriors’ contract one year early to take up a three-year contract at the Panthers, but not before guiding the NRL’s perennial underachievers to the grand final, which they lost to the Sea Eagles 24-10.

His tenure at Penrith got off to a rocky start, with injuries and poor form seeing them finish second-last ahead of only the Parramatta Eels. That same year, representative centre Michael Jennings left the club for the Roosters, and featured in their premiership-winning team 12 months later.

Following improvement in 2013, Cleary’s contract was extended to the end of 2016, and it seemed the five-year plan general manager Phil Gould had of making the Panthers one of the biggest clubs in the NRL was on track.

Now we wait and see how the club attacks its newest era under soon-to-be coach Griffin. Can the club put its horror 2015 season, ruined by injuries, behind them and once again become a contender?

close