Players and coaches were in no mood to talk about Penrith’s shock defeat last week at the hands of the undermanned Sydney Roosters.
Ivan Cleary was prickly with reporters, while Liam Henry and Paul Alamoti – who both scored tries in the 38-32 loss – were determined to move on from the result dubbed by many pundits as “the biggest upset in NRL history”.
Cleary was particularly unhappy some four days post-result, not giving much when asked how he reflected on the performance at their temporary home, CommBank Stadium, last Friday night.
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Cleary said stony-faced.
“I said what I said after the game, we reviewed it and got what we needed to out of it and we’re looking forward to this week.”
Penrith were simply awful in the humid Round 2 contest, missing a whopping 46 tackles and recording a disastrous 13 errors.
Roosters stars like captain James Tedesco and new recruit Chad Townsend labelled the victory as one of the best of their illustrious careers – proving how much beating the Premiers, when they were $11 outsiders, meant to them.
“Like most weeks you get over it and move on and we’ve got plenty on our plates this week,” Cleary added.
Panthers interchange forward Liam Henry said Cleary had been in a positive mood around the group since the loss, which was a stark contrast to what the media experienced early Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s been really good, absolutely,” Henry said.
“We addressed what we needed to. There’s been a lot of lessons and learnings throughout the week, so we’re excited for Thursday night’s game.”
Henry, who missed Penrith’s Round 1 victory in Las Vegas due to recovery from off-season shoulder surgery, was strong in his first outing for 2025 – scoring a try from a kick and not missing a single tackle unlike 14 of his teammates.
The 23-year-old from Blayney in country NSW attempted to put his finger on what went so wrong.
“We had a lot of missed tackles – that was the biggest thing – and just getting our ruck control back,” Henry said.
“Credit to the Roosters, they showed up and they played better and ran harder and tackled harder. They played really well, and you can’t take much away from them.
“As I said before, we took a lot of lessons out of that game and I’m looking forward to this week.”
Panthers Grand Final hero Paul Alamoti, whose already scored two tries to start the year, said it was a tough loss to take because Penrith haven’t done much losing over the past half dozen years.
“No one likes to lose and we haven’t lost much in the past five or six years,” he admitted.
“That loss definitely wasn’t good and the vibe hasn’t been great but we’ve flushed that and we’re looking forward to Thursday night against Melbourne.
“When you do lose, it hits home a little bit more… We understand everything that’s happened, and we’ve flushed that and we’re moving forward.”
In his post-match press conference on Friday night, Cleary said to reporters that he believes his players lost the game before they even arrived at the stadium to face the Roosters.
Complacency is a big word in sport and no matter how lopsided two oppositions appear on paper, it can – and often does – creep into games. When Extra Time asked Alamoti if he knew what Cleary meant by his bold statement, the 21-year-old said the message was loud and clear.
“Yes, but that’s something for us to address internally and we’ve definitely sorted that out,” Alamoti said.
For the Panthers, there’s perhaps no better mood-booster than bouncing back in a Grand Final rematch against the red-hot Melbourne Storm.
“The game’s actually come at the right time. We have a chance to bounce back after a loss. It’s come at the right time, it will be good for us,” Alamoti said.
Nathan Taylor
Nathan Taylor is the Weekender's Deputy Editor and Senior Sports Writer. He also compiles the weekly Chatter on the Box TV column. Nathan is an award-winning journalist, who has worked at the Weekender for a decade.