The Panthers don’t have to worry about another early-season stumble after coach Ivan Cleary came to his son’s rescue at the NRL judiciary where Nathan had his careless high tackle charge downgraded on Monday night.
The Panthers pulled a shock move before the hearing started with the club opting for Cleary to represent his son over a high-profile lawyer, and with four teams in Las Vegas, the gamble paid off spectacularly with one of the shortest cases in years; just 38 minutes, plus 12 minutes of deliberation.
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Cleary was facing a three-match ban if the downgrade had been unsuccessful, with the Penrith playmaker pleading guilty to the initial charge but disputing the grading for a tackle on Wests Tigers rookie Heamasi Makasini that saw him sin binned last Friday.
He will now have to pay a $1800 fine in a huge boost to the Panthers who fell off a cliff to start the 2025 campaign and were last after 12 rounds before they stormed home to reach the preliminary final.
The halfback arrived with his father and media manager Michael Blok at Rugby League Central, with Penrith officials Matt Cameron and Shane Elford joining them shortly after.
The four-time premiership-winning coach is no stranger to representing players with Cleary taking charge for a case involving Api Koroisau back in 2021 which he ultimately lost.
But he reversed the result on Monday night, with judiciary chairman Geoff Bellew calling him “Mr Cleary Sr” to avoid any confusion before he explained how the process works.
He’s already resting on his laurels, but I definitely thank him because it’s a big effort,” Nathan said after the hearing and deliberation which lasted less than an hour.
“I’m disappointed I had to put him through that little extra work that he had to do outside his normal job, but I’m grateful for his effort.
“I had no say in the matter (him representing me) but he was pretty confident.
“There were mixed thoughts because the last few times he’s been to the judiciary, it hasn’t worked out too well. But I trust him and we thought that we had a pretty good case. I’m glad the panel could see that.”
The biggest surprise wasn’t that the coach represented his son, but it was that judiciary counsel Lachlan Gyles didn’t cross-examine the halfback after he gave evidence to the panel of Greg McCallum and Ryan James.
“We’d usually use a lawyer in this instance, but this particular case we thought it would have more rugby league context,” Cleary explained, saying the club would call upon prominent lawyer Nick Ghabar for future cases.
His son argued that the tackle on the Tigers winger was one he makes three or four times a game when bigger bodies try to spot him up down a short side.
