Nathan Cleary has inflicted more pain on Brisbane, putting on a masterclass to lead the Panthers to a 34-12 demolition job in the grand-final rematch.
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Six months on from stealing the NRL premiership from Brisbane with the greatest individual 20 minutes in grand-final history, Cleary was at it again on Thursday night.
The Penrith half had a hand in four tries, including a mesmerising assist to Izack Tago before halftime, to end any hopes the Broncos had at BlueBet Stadium.
On a horror night for the Broncos, they also lost star fullback Reece Walsh to an ugly eye injury after a head clash with Taylan May in the fourth minute.
The Broncos superstar was cleared of a concussion, but will now undergo scans on his eye socket after being unable to see clearly.
With Walsh, Payne Haas and Adam Reynolds all missing, Cleary picked apart the Broncos with ease.
He repeatedly targeted Brendan Piakura, with Brisbane forced to play the second-rower at left centre while Selwyn Cobbo filled in at fullback.
It was on that edge that Cleary found the space for the Panthers' first try, when he lofted a ball for winger Sunia Turuva to put him over.
Centre Tago was the next man to benefit, with his first try coming from a long cut-out ball from Cleary after Jarome Luai changed the point of attack.
Then came the play of the night just before halftime.
With Brisbane already on the ropes down 16-2, Cleary skipped across field and had Brisbane on the back foot with a double-pump dummy and another show-and-go.
That created the space for Tago to run into a gaping hole and put the match beyond doubt and ensure Penrith would go 2-1 to start the year after also accounting for Parramatta last week.
Cleary's night was still not over, involving himself after the break when he went across field to create numbers before Luai and May put Brian To'o over.
At that point, Cleary had been involved in six tries in the space of 60 minutes of football against the Broncos, dating back to last year's grand final.
"The way we were disciplined about how we wanted to play and the choices we were making based on that, I thought was as good as we've done for a while, even (compared to) last year," coach Ivan Cleary said.
"Hopefully that's a sign of things to come.
"It's hard to back up good performances at the start of the year, so it was very pleasing."
Penrith's win marked the equal-biggest by a side in a grand-final rematch in 23 years, and leaves the Broncos 1-2, with Walsh at risk of joining Reynolds and Haas on the sidelines.
"It hasn't got anything to do with last year, it's all about tonight," Broncos coach Kevin Walters said of the way Cleary again took apart his team.
"We faced a bit of adversity there early and we didn't handle it as well as we should have."
What was also obvious was that while Brisbane did not want to speak about last year's grand final this week, Penrith have clearly learned from it.
They rushed up and cut down the time and space of Brisbane's edges, after Ezra Mam and Walsh did all the damage in the 2023 decider.
It was in that fashion Walsh was injured, with May put on report for colliding with the Broncos fullback early in the game.
Penrith protested the penalty, but referee Gerard Sutton ruled that May had a duty of care to bend in the tackle and avoid the head clash.
Brisbane took the penalty goal to lead 2-0, but their next points didn't come until the game was over in the second half.
Australian Associated Press
