A masterclass from Nathan Cleary has led the Penrith Panthers to a 46-10 win against the St George Illawarra Dragons on Sunday afternoon at WIN Stadium.
It was 2nd v 9th coming into the weekend as the Dragons looked to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the joint venture in style, as the Panthers made their first visit to Wollongong since 2016. In that previous visit, Jamie Soward, current Dragons NRLW coach was the halfback for the Panthers.
The sold out WIN Stadium was in full voice as both teams ran out, but Casey McLean brought a hush to the stadium in just 3 minutes. Nathan Cleary would offer McLean an opportunity to come underneath, and McLean took that to open the account for the Panthers. Cleary would convert his first attempt of the day to make it 6-0 in as many minutes.
Off the very next set, Daine Laurie would part the Red Sea on the right edge and pass back to Cleary on the inside, with only some brilliant cover defense from Moses Suli stopping the half from opening his account.
Casey Mclean would capitalize on some poor offense from the Dragons and give Penrith yet another opportunity on 8 minutes, with the Panthers forcing consecutive line drop outs to further add pressure to an already weary Dragons defense.
12 minutes in, the Dragons cracked and Liam Martin strolled over untouched off a Nathan Cleary short ball to extend the Panthers lead. Things would go from bad to worse for the Dragons, with some poor kicking from Ben Hunt allowing the Panthers more possession that would result in Cleary's first try.
Daine Laurie broke the line once again on the right edge, this time on the last tackle, passing inside to set up Nathan Cleary first try and getting taken out of the game for his trouble. Laurie and the culprit for this early shower, Mat Feagai, both failed their HIA while James Fisher Harris lasted all of three minutes with a groin complaint from a drop tackle.
Nathan Cleary would double his account with a run by himself close to the line, carrying defenders with him as he slammed the ball down on the left side to make it 22-0 after just as many minutes.
That try, however, seemed to light a fire in the bellies of the Dragons, with Zac Lomax causing havoc and flicking a ball out to Christian Tuipulotu for what would be the final scoring act of the half. A 22-4 scoreline at half time reflected how bad it was for the Dragons, but there was hope - Shane Flanagan asking his men to fight, to show why the joint venture was 25 years strong and going.
While the Dragons tried to come out firing, they ended up blowing smoke as Jarome Luai sent Scott Sorensen through some flimsy St George defense 6 minutes after the break. The attack from Penrith continued to trouble the Dragons, albeit without a last tackle option that caused any grief for the middle part of the second half. On the other hand, the Dragons were playing hot potato and to good effect - Toby Couchman being denied as the ball slipped out of his outstretched hand just before planting down to breathe life back into the Dragons hopes.
That is where it ended though, for the luckless Dragons as a plethora of errors invited the Panthers back on the attack and they did not need further invitations.
Having lacked a good kick on the last play for a solid chunk of the second half, Nathan Cleary slid a grubber through the Dragons legs and workhorse Lindsay Smith planted down for his third try of the season on 70 minutes. The floodgates would continue the very next set as the Panthers worked down the field off the kick off, giving Jarome Luai enough space to break through the Dragons and set Cleary up for his first hat-trick since Magic Round, 2021. Trent Toelau would put the icing on the cake with his first NRL try from dummy half with four minutes to go. Cleary converted all three opportunities in the space of six minutes to make it 46-4.
A very late Jaydn Su'a try would give Dragons fans a little something to smile about, but it was all Penrith as they ran out 46-10 winners over a Dragons side who won't want to watch this game back.
The win keeps Penrith four points clear of the Sydney Roosters in third position, as they can now start to look towards a home quarter final in just over a months time. The Dragons, however, fell further away from finals football with their points differential taking a major hit. Now at -92 and a must-win clash against the Raiders next week, the Dragons need to make the most of their next few weeks to have any shot of running out in September.