Nathan Cleary was booed savagely when he was introduced to the Suncorp Stadium crowd on Sunday. He had been beaten to the ball by Ben Hunt for a sparkling early Broncos try. He had mis-kicked a first-half drop-out to ridicule from the stands. Then at 8-8 he was pulverised in a tackle by Brisbane’s Kotoni Staggs.
The great icon of the Penrith four-peat – like many of his team-mates – has not been himself in 2025, and Sunday was looking like another tough day. The Staggs hit was met with glee by the 50-odd thousand present, a rugby league community impatient for the end of the Panthers dynasty.
