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Penrith coach Ivan Cleary is expected to announce that next year will be his last at the NRL club.
In a blow to the Panthers’ chances of retaining some of their biggest names, the four-time premiership winning coach is expected to pursue other opportunities at the end of the 2027 season.
A press conference has been called at Panthers headquarters at 2pm.
His son Nathan, arguably the best player in the game, is also off contract at the end of 2027, as are star teammates including Isaah Yeo, Brian To’o and Liam Martin.
Ivan has recently discussed the possibility of taking on a representative coaching role in future.
“I have thought about it a bit more lately, I don’t know why,” Cleary told this masthead last year. “I’m not sure whether I really want to or not, but it’s starting to intrigue me a little bit more, yeah.
“Today I’ve just come back after being around the Australian camp. There’s something pretty cool about coaching the best players, good players with guys from other teams that I’ve coached against. It’s a different dynamic.
“Just the whole thing where you don’t have a lot of time [to prepare] and so that’s something I haven’t really done much of. I was assistant coach of the Kiwis in a World Cup, I really enjoyed that as well. One of the things I really liked about it was working with guys from other teams and just trying to get a team together quickly.”
A coaching director role is another option Cleary could potentially be interested in pursuing, sources close to the coach who are not authorised to comment publicly, say.
More to come
