{"id":137980,"date":"2021-10-02T21:10:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T21:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=137980"},"modified":"2021-10-02T23:58:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T23:58:04","slug":"clearys-brutal-admission-ahead-of-grand-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=137980","title":{"rendered":"Cleary's brutal admission ahead of grand final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary<\/a> has admitted that South Sydney were the "hungrier" side when the two sides met to open each other's finals campaigns last month.<\/p>\n

After losing just three games during the regular season, Penrith was expected to steamroll South Sydney in the opening week of the finals, but Cleary's men were stunned in a 16-10 loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Canterbury Bulldogs set to sign Rabbitohs star<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the premiership favourites have knuckled down since that loss, with two consecutive gritty wins over Parramatta and Melbourne setting up a rematch with the Rabbitohs in the NRL grand final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the grudge match, Cleary paid credit to the underdogs for their surprise win last month.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"We were probably just a bit off. In a big game, in a big finals game, that can be the difference. They were probably just a bit hungrier than us that night," he admitted.<\/p>\n

"They looked like they put a lot into that game, which of course we did as well, but in the end we left Townsville that night feeling like we didn't quite put our best foot forward.<\/p>\n

"We've corrected a few things, we've improved gradually since then.<\/p>\n

"We want to get there tomorrow night and give the best possible performance that we can and we feel like that can certainly be a bit better than that game in Townsville."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A gruelling finals campaign has left Penrith bruised and battered heading into the decider, but Cleary was adamant that the quartet of Brian To'o, Dylan Edwards, James Fisher-Harris and Moses Leota would all take the field on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

"I just marvel at the resilience of these boys and the courage they show each week," Cleary said.<\/p>\n

"They just refuse not to play. They just keep turning up and doing their thing."<\/p>\n

Despite a COVID-19 scare in Queensland this week, the NRL grand final will remain at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 pm AEST.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has admitted that South Sydney were the "hungrier" side when the two sides met to open each other's finals campaigns last […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137980"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137982,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137980\/revisions\/137982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}