Penrith coach Ivan Cleary denies his side is going through a rebuild despite blooding nine debutants during the 2019 NRL season.
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary insists his side isn’t in the midst of a rebuild despite blooding their ninth debutant of the year and getting ready to farewell their most influential player James Maloney.
The Panthers will next week begin the post-mortem on their disappointing 2019 season after having their faint NRL finals hopes extinguished with a 22-6 defeat to the Sydney Roosters on Saturday.
After starting the year as top-four fancies, the Panthers have gone backwards during Cleary’s first season in charge.
The cleanout of their roster has begun with Waqa Blake shipped off to Parramatta despite having not even begun a four-year contract extension which was supposed to keep him at the foot of the mountains until the end of 2023.
Meanwhile, the Eels and Panthers have reportedly been in discussions about prop Reagan Campell-Gillard being released from the final five years of his deal.
Two-time premiership-winning half Maloney will play his NRL game against Newcastle at Panthers Stadium on Sunday before departing for the English Super League.
Back-rower Billy Burns made his debut against the Roosters to become the Panthers’ ninth new face this season.
And while fellow debutants Brian To’o, Mitch Kenny and Brent Naden were instrumental in their mid-season fightback, the club will head into 2020 as a young and inexperienced side.
But Cleary bristled at the suggestion that they were rebuilding.
“No one’s calling it a rebuild,” Cleary said.
“We’ve certainly made some adjustments, we’ve had nine debutants this year, which is more than any other club, all have come through our system.
“We’re playing a pretty young team.
“But we’re confident in our system. I know the path forward, I know what we need to do. I’m looking forward to getting into it.”
Last year Anthony Griffin was sacked as coach a month out from the finals while the side were sitting in fourth.
After finishing fifth, they were expected to rise again in 2019.
While Cleary wouldn’t acknowledge expectations from fans and pundits, he admitted they had underachieved.
“External expectations can be one thing,” Cleary said.
“Internally we’ll definitely feel we should have done better, for sure.
“I’m not sure how accurate the external ones were. We definitely finish the year feeling like we should have done better.”
© AAP
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Who are the hardest working big men in the NRL?
Darcy Lussick and Cook Islands player Anthony Gelling found out on SENZ the Panthers star will be crossing back to New Zealand.
This one will hurt. James Fisher-Harris’ unexpected exit from Penrith to the Warriors at season’s end not only has ramifications for those two clubs…
James Fisher-Harris is set to return home, with the marquee player announced as signing with the New Zealand Warriors. The New Zealand franchise has…
A brutally honest Blake Lawrie has conceded he could rightfully have been axed by Shane Flanagan, labelling his own early-season form at St George…
