Cruel twist for Panthers’ replacement players as Jett Cleary suffers brutal blow before finals

The Penrith Panthers NSW Cup team has unfortunately missed out on footy finals having been eliminated on points differential after 16 players were called up for the NRL clash against the Bulldogs. While Jett Cleary failed to finish the Warriors’ NSW Cup game due to a head knock, but won’t miss a finals clash.

Plenty was made surrounding Ivan Cleary’s decision to rest 16 Panthers players against the Bulldogs with the coach just about conceding his side wouldn’t make the top four. This saw him rest 16 regular starters with Brad Schneider the only player from the previous game week’s 17 to play.

Naturally this meant Cleary called up a big crew from the NSW Cup team. And while they put in a solid first 40 minutes against the Bulldogs, Penrith were eventually blown away 28-4. While Cleary opted to give his first-grade side an early rest before the NRL finals, the decision has taken its toll on the NSW Cup side.

Unfortunately, the Penrith Panthers NSW Cup outfit went down to the Raiders 34-8 in the final round of the regular season with plenty of their stars missing. Remarkably, this meant the Raiders finished on 30 points alongside the Panthers.

However, the Raiders leapfrogged the Panthers into fifth position because of a better points differential. Only the top five play finals footy with the Warriors finishing in first and enjoy the week off. This means the Panthers missed out on NSW Cup finals footy due to their weaker points differential.

This would have come as a blow to a number of the NSW Cup players on an individual level with their season now over and not getting the chance to play the Raiders and remain in contention. Although a number of Panthers players made their NRL debut against the Bulldogs on Thursday night, which would have been a career highlight.

And Cleary made the call to benefit the Panthers’ team in the long-run, which was the idea behind resting 16 players. While there has been debate on whether resting that many players is a good look for the game, Cleary was well within his right to do so.

There was very little NRL experience in the Panthers team to play the Bulldogs last Thursday. Daine Laurie started at fullback, while Paul Alamoti was on the wing with Brad Schneider at halfback. Veteran Matt Eisenhuth led the pack. Otherwise, there were plenty of debutants in the team that went down to Canterbury.