Ivan Cleary begins long goodbye with a legacy built to last long after he leaves Panthers | Nick Tedeschi
The great coaches all have something special that elevates them above others.Wayne Bennett built his success on connection and an ability to authentically forge relationships with generation after generation of players.Craig Bellamy has a foundation of deifying work ethic and simple communication.Trent Robinson, intellect and loyalty.Ivan Cleary is an engineer, the ultimate believer in process, a coach at once ruthless and relatable who dreamt of building a bigger and more complex machine that could sustain itself beyond the people it was initially built around.
He achieved it.And that is why the success at Penrith won’t end when the four-time premiership coach walks away from the top job at the end of next year, handing the reins to long-time assistant Peter Wallace.The Cleary way is built to last long after he leaves.The curtain is closing on one of the most unlikely and successful coaching runs in premiership history.Cleary will be remembered for his second stint at Penrith that has netted four premierships, five grand finals, three minor premierships and a 143-48-2 record, with more success on the cards with the Panthers flying high at the top of the ladder in 2026.
No coach in the modern era has led a team to such concentrated greatness.That he even had the opportunity to create the greatest era since the famous St George 11-in-a-row dynasty is astonishing.The likes of Bennett, Bellamy and Robinson all won premierships at their first club, and within their first five years in the job.Cleary started coaching the Warriors in 2006 and while he took the club to a grand final in 2011 and had just a single losing season in his six in Auckland, it took him until 2021 to win his first title, following a losing first stint at Penrith and an uninspiring short run at the Wests Tigers.It took an unlikely power play to force out heavyweight powerbroker Phil Gould from the Panthers to make it happen.
Cleary’s success has been implausible and perhaps because of that it has not been centred on the cult of personality like so many other great mentors.What Cleary has built can and should last when he passes the torch to Wallace.Gould played a foundational role in unleashing the power that Penrith possessed, understanding the competitive advantage that such a powerful junior nursery at the club provided.He organised and aligned, provided the outline of a strategy.But the Panthers’ domination of this decade would not have happened without Cleary, who provided the clarity, sense of purpose, singular focus and top-to-bottom synchronicity that has made the Penrith machine relentlessly successful.
Nothing better showcases the sustainability of the Penrith way than the ongoing success the club has had despite the departure of so many big name players.Matt Burton and Api Koroisau left after the first premiership.Stephen Crichton and Viliame Kikau after the second.Jarome Luai and James Fisher-Harris after the fourth.The success has not slowed and it it unlikely to with Cleary handing over in the smoothest of transitions to Wallace.
There was no interview process,There was no wide search or talk of a succession plan,Cleary did not even want to announce it this early other than for the fact the club determined it was the appropriate time, such was his ease with the decision he made and the way the club handled it,The major issue now facing Penrith is keeping their playing group together,The Panthers top brass was pragmatic in making the Cleary announcement, sensing the need to create certainty at the club in a turbulent period with the addition of two new clubs, including one benefiting from tax-free contracts.
Nathan Cleary is off contract the same time his father is walking away and has been linked to a move to the PNG Chiefs or to England to be closer to high profile fiance Mary Fowler.Skipper Isaah Yeo, Brian To’o, Mitch Kenny, Liam Martin, Paul Alamoti, Moses Leota, Isaiah Papali’i and Blaize Talagi are also off contract at the same time, meaning they will be free to negotiate from 1 November.It is unlikely, but Penrith’s core could well walk away.Regardless, the club will when required continue to replace departed stars with quality young talent ready for first grade and grounded in the Panthers style from a young age.Penrith may not keep winning premierships every season but they will continue to contend.
Ivan Cleary’s next move remains to be seen but he will not be short of options.His desire to continue coaching in the NRL may have ended – or at the very least, the pause button has been hit – but his batting of the eyelids towards representative mentoring should be of grave concern to current NSW coach Laurie Daley and incumbent Australian boss Kevin Walters.Cleary’s qualifications for both roles dwarf those of Daley and Walters and it would be downright malpractice from both the NSWRL and the ARL if the intimations from Cleary were not forged into a romance.Taking on a role running a football department or one providing mentorship to a coach is also a possibility.He has been linked to PNG Chiefs – and they have more money than any other club to throw at him – while a return to the Warriors – where he is still adored and where his son Jett plays for – could also hold some appeal.
Typically of Cleary, though, none of this is for now.He has the premiership front-runners on track to win a fifth title in six years.He has a machine to keep refining.And he has an assistant he needs to get ready to continue on the legacy he has built..
The Cleary way endures.It is bigger than one person, even the person who engineered it.
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