Nathan Cleary is considered the best player in the world but even he, despite a late equalising goal, couldn’t defeat the Super League Champions St Helens.
It was the last thing Cleary needed to win to wrap up every trophy as a State of Origin winner, World Cup winner and of course a Grand Final winner.
According to former Bronco Denan Kemp, Cleary was left “furious” by the defeat.
He said in the Bloke in a Pub podcast:
“On Nathan Cleary, I was told by three different people that Sunday morning he was back at the fields at Penrith on his own. This game was Saturday night.
“Yeah you could tell he was stinging after the game, he was furious.
He also spoke about why Australian fans were glad to see Penrith beaten by the Super League Champions:
“The Melbourne Storm are hated because they’re good, people try to look for reasons like the wrestle but no people don’t like them because they’re good. Any time a team becomes good people will look for reasons not to like them.
“The thing with the Panthers though is that they are cocky, they are confident and they are in your face. There is a lot of people just waiting for them to struggle so that they can say what they want to say. And that’s fair because if you want to take the mantle of being of the cocky, in your face style then you have to cop what comes when you don’t win.”
