September 2020: Panthers and Tigers finally settle their Cleary battle

Over the past couple of weeks there’s been plenty spoken about in the saga between Anthony Griffin and the Penrith Panthers. As the dust settles, it’s the Wests Tigers who have arguably stolen the strategic advantage over the NRL ‘genius’ Phil Gould.

Sport in general is a great place for a conspiracy theory or baseless speculation and the NRL is no different. If anything it does rumour better than most sports and with the recent sacking of Griffin from Penrith there has been plenty to get your teeth stuck into. But what has been almost totally missed is how the strategic plays of Gould have actually given the Tigers the advantage and left his own club with a dented reputation and rudderless ship going into the end of the season.

There’s been talk for months about how the father and son combo have wanted to be for at the same team. There were many who thought that the season would culminate in a press conference with Gould welcoming back Ivan Cleary to Penrith with a big smile on his face as he enhances his own legend as a mastermind of rugby league.

Ivan Cleary during his time with Penrith (Photo: Renee McKay/Getty Images)

But as we come out of the other end of this story, it’s arguably the Tigers who can consider themselves in the driving seat. Not only has the coach come out and said that he’s going nowhere but the Tigers’ executives have a chance here to map out a very exciting few years for the Clearys and the club.

While Gould is going to have to go and find another coach who might be asked to fill a one to two year gap before they believe they can unite the Clearys, the Tigers can present a multi-year strategy to Ivan that shows the club growing and improving on and off the field until his son is ready to come and join him in the orange and black.

While right now the Panthers might look like the much more attractive roster to take charge of, consider these points.

Gould has already fired Ivan once – is Big Phil really that charming that he can persuade a man to come back and risk being sacked by the same man twice in the space of a few years?

Secondly – premiership windows – an often used term and one that has been applied to the Panthers recently. It’s easy to imagine that in a year or two, this window is going to be closing.

Meanwhile, over at the Tigers, they will be building towards creating their own window. Surely the Tigers CEO is painting a picture to Ivan that he can achieve more at the Tigers where he can create that window and then bring his son over and win the Tigers a Premiership together while the Panthers struggle to make the 8.

Thirdly, the Panthers have come out of this situation looking pretty poor. No matter which side of the story you fall on, the Panthers have not handled this well and it’s been shown yet again that it’s Phil’s way or the hard way. Would Ivan really fancy walking back into an environment that has a growing track record for treating head coaches so poorly?

Phil Gould has denied he’s been pulling the strings at Penrith. (Photo: Tony Feder/Getty Images)

Let’s imagine three scenarios:

One – the Panthers get a new coach and go well. Can they then really fire that coach in a year or two and bring Ivan in?

It’s one thing to sack a coach you feel is underperforming but to get rid of one who is getting the Panthers going better than before, well that’s never going to look good. In this situation the opportunity to bring in Ivan becomes even more tricky.

Two – the Panthers get a new coach and go badly.

Is Ivan going to want to walk into a place that is performing badly, and is Nathan going to want to stay there? If at the same time the Tigers are going well then surely a move for Nathan looks much more likely.

Three – the Panthers continue to perform the same as they are now. In this scenario it would be sensible for Ivan to believe that actually the Panthers have missed their chance and that they aren’t going to do any better for a while.

Why walk into that situation? Again, if the Tigers can build and grow in this period then a move for Nathan to join his dad at a club on the up sounds more realistic.

Of course there are plenty of ‘ifs’ in this whole debate, but whichever way you cut it, the Panthers have really executed poorly here. They’ve got themselves in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, they haven’t got the coach they wanted and they’re trying to launch a finals campaign while the club is in turmoil and one of their stars is under a huge media spotlight.

Meanwhile, the Tigers have shown teeth as they stood up for their man and made it clear that they will not be bullied.

They have a real chance to use this whole episode as another injection of momentum and strengthen the bond between them and Ivan. As that grows stronger and the Panthers continue to miss that Premiership title, the icing on the cake could well be the Tigers landing the signature of Nathan and wouldn’t that be a slap in the face for Gould.