Ivan Cleary, it turns out, has a lot of personality hidden under that gruff demeanor.
Let’s assume a tired-looking Cleary gave a humorous interview on the Today Show in the early hours of Monday morning, just hours after Penrith’s dramatic Grand Final victory.
Cleary, who appeared sober and prepared, took his spoken word to a whole new level in an expletive-laden trip down memory lane at the club’s annual awards night on Wednesday.
The 52-year-old Cleary coached Penrith from 2012-2015 before he was sacked, moving to Wests Tigers in 2017 following a break from coaching.
Linked with a return to the Panthers the following year, Cleary famously released a statement declaring he “intends to honour this contract” and stay with the Tigers.
He was gone less than three months later, returning to Penrith, and Cleary referenced a coffee he had with Panthers chairman Dave O’Neill during his wildly entertaining speech.
He simply looked me in the eyes and asked,’mate, do you want to come back?'” Cleary starts.
“I asked, ‘Hey?'”
“‘Do you want to come back and coach the Panthers?’ he said.
“And I was just like, ‘f**k yeah’.”
“I went home and told (wife) Bec, and she was like, ‘What?!'”
“That triggered a chain of circumstances that brought me back to the club in 2019. The club had so much promise that they made the finals three years in a row.There was a lot of success and a lot of good students playing in the lower grades.
Like Yeoy (Isaah Yeo), Nat (Nathan Cleary), Dly (Dylan Edwards), Romy (Jarome Luai) had debuted… the core of the team.”
Cleary said an immediate sore point for him, however, was the number of Parramatta jerseys he would see in the region. So he set his sights on restoring some pride in the black jersey.
“In those days, the community liked their team but it didn’t feel like they loved it,” he said.
“There weren’t a lot of people wearing Panthers kits around the suburbs. There were a lot of Parramatta fans, there are still too many around here today.
“You don’t see too many jerseys thankfully. There’s a lot of Souths fans, people that moved out here… I thought there was a real opportunity here.”
That was a taste of things to come as the room erupted in laughter, screaming and cheering.
Cleary then recalled the 2020 Grand Final when he was hugely confident his side would be far too strong for the Melbourne Storm.
“We went into the Grand Final that year and thought ‘f**k, no one can beat us’,” he recalled.
“As it turned out, the Melbourne Storm kicked our arse that night.
“But they taught us a lesson that night.
“They taught us a lesson in what it takes to win big games.”
Penrith responded from that disappointment in the best way imaginable.
Returning to the decider the following year, the Panthers eked out a 14-12 victory over South Sydney to get their dynasty truly underway and snap an 18-year drought between premierships.
Penrith then thrashed Parramatta 28-12 to secure consecutive titles before last weekend’s all-time comeback win over the Broncos.
Cleary was determined to give the players credit for their ability to overcome adversity.
“What you didn’t see was the hours and hours and hours of practice,” he added of his comeback victory in Brisbane.
“Mental practice, mental rehearsal, not just physical practice about how they play.”
“When they’re down, understand that you’ll have doubts in games.”
“I’ve never seen a team have to come back from such a large deficit and still play the way we do.”
“There was no random chip and chases or offloads out their arse or anything.”
Those players are f**king incredible. “All I want is for everyone to celebrate them.”
He’d also planned a memorable ending phrase that referenced both Star Wars and his team’s 2024 plans.
“On that note, have a happy fourth.”
