Before etching his place in rugby league folklore, Penrith Panthers coach Ivan Cleary was on the scrap heap as a coach, struggling to restore his career with perennial rivals the Wests Tigers.
Now, at the end-of-season awards ceremony following the Panthers’ unprecedented three-peat of grand final victories, Cleary has opened up about his return to the team in an amusing 20-minute speech that left the audience laughing.
Cleary coached the Panthers for the first time from 2012 to 2015 before being fired by Phil Gould and the board and being sent into the rugby league wilderness.
He was eventually signed by the Tigers, where he famously told players to ‘get on the bus’ and led them to the brink of the NRL finals in 2018.
However, Cleary has now claimed that he was planning his own leave while demanding players buy in to the struggling Tigers.
Former Panthers chairman Dave O’Neill had been attempting to court Cleary throughout 2018, and the coach recounted what transpired when they eventually met over coffee.
‘He just looked me in the eye and asked, ‘Mate, do you want to come back?’ Cleary said.
“I went home and told (wife) Bec, and she said, ‘What?!’.”
His admission elicited a cry of approbation from the audience, and several others have lined up to kick Wests.
‘How awful could the environment have been at Wests Tigers that Ivan paid a get-out fee just to get out of there?’ One inquired.
‘Ivan couldn’t wait to go home and see how it had turned out,’ wrote another.
