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.
‘We have the same monster’: three women brought down their rapist – this is what happened next
In 2023, the Guardian profiled a group of women who had formed an unshakeable bond after they saw their attacker convicted and decided to waive their anonymity. That interview has now led to a documentaryThe three women refer to each other as “the girls”, even though they are in their 40s and 50s, long past girlhood. They have a WhatsApp group called Sister Solidarity, even though they are biologically unrelated.The unshakeable bond between Laura Hughes and Lauren Preston, both 45, and Mary Sharp, 58, came about for the saddest reason – all three were raped and abused by Martin Butler, a manipulative drug dealer on their estate in London who groomed and coerced them decades ago.Butler is now serving a lengthy sentence for the rape and buggery of Sharp in 1988
Did breakthrough in US fentanyl crisis start in China?
As Donald Trump travels to Beijing this week, fentanyl – and China’s role in its supply chain – remains an enduring point of acrimony in bilateral relations.At a UN meeting in March, the US again accused China of failing to stop its chemical industry selling the precursors required to make the potent synthetic opioid, while China suggested the US was shifting the blame for its domestic drug problem.Yet there are growing signs that the US fentanyl crisis has turned a corner – and some experts believe that interventions made in China have played a key role.“There was a supply shock: the purity of fentanyl fell,” said Keith Humphreys, a professor at Stanford University. “The question is why was there a supply shock
Getting children to eat their vegetables starts in the womb, researchers suggest
Rather than bribery, or hiding carrots under ketchup, the key may be to expose foetuses to healthy flavoursIt is an age-old battle with small children that most parents will recognise: please, please, eat your vegetables.Some will read them books with titles such as The Boy Who Loved Broccoli. Others have been known to smother veg in tomato ketchup, or mix avocado and fruit with Greek yoghurt and call it icecream. Or resort to plain bribery.Now, a study suggests there may be a more effective approach – but mothers need to start early
Older people risk mental decline if they do long hours of caring, UK study shows
The stresses and strains of caring for someone for 50 hours or more a week leads to “accelerated cognitive decline” in middle-aged and older people, research shows.However, providing care for only five to nine hours a week has the opposite effect, boosting brain health so much that the benefits last until older age.Carers UK called the findings “extremely worrying” and said they highlight how long hours spent providing care raises the risk of social isolation and burnout.Dr Baowen Xue, an academic at University College London and the lead author of the paper, said: “Our study shows that the caring responsibilities many people take on in later life can be a double-edged sword.“On the one hand, lighter caring responsibilities can be good for you by providing mental stimulation from interacting with loved ones or others you’re helping and a sense of purpose and usefulness
Capacity of lifts not kept up with UK obesity levels, study shows
Lifts are no longer big enough to fit the UK’s larger citizens, according to researchers.A study of maximum capacity in elevators in the UK and mainland Europe found lifts have not kept up with increasing obesity levels, raising concerns about safety and equity.The research, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, Turkey, used photos of weight limits for 112 lifts manufactured between 1972 and 2024 in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Finland.Prof Nick Finer, the president and chair of the International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organisation and lead author of the study, compared the average maximum weight allowance (total weight allowance divided by maximum passenger limits) with the average adult weight in the year the lift was manufactured.The research found that despite adults’ continued growing weight, total lift limits have not increased since about 2004
More than 6,000 children treated at obesity clinics in England, figures show
More than 6,000 children living with obesity, including hundreds as young as four, have required treatment at specialist NHS weight-loss clinics, new figures reveal.NHS England data, published for the first time, underlines the scale of the growing childhood obesity crisis.Since the first Complications from Excess Weight clinic (CEW) opened in 2021, the NHS has treated 6,497 children and teenagers. Of these, 423 were four years old, 1,088 were aged between five and eight, 1,791 were aged nine to 12 and 3,137 were aged between 13 and 17. The age of a further 58 is unknown
Australian workers have been hard done by and tax reforms in the budget only begin to return some fairness | Greg Jericho
US Senate confirms Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair, replacing Jerome Powell
Sam Altman defends OpenAI in courtroom showdown with Elon Musk
Florida students boo graduation speaker who called AI ‘next Industrial Revolution’
Jim Furyk tells US players they need to make Ryder Cup more of a priority
England v New Zealand: second women’s cricket ODI abandoned – as it happened