Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has called out Melbourne superstar Cameron Munster over his tackle on Spencer Leniu late in the first half of the Panthers’ 12-10 victory in Thursday’s thrilling grand-final rematch.
Munster dropped onto Leniu’s lower leg in the dying seconds of the first half in an incident that went unpunished by the match officials.
The Panthers forward’s left leg bent back awkwardly under the weight of Munster and Storm forwards Kenny Bromwich and Nelson Asofa-Solomona.
“I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it at all,” Cleary said post-match when asked for his opinion on the tackle.
MORE: Bellamy addresses contentious calls in narrow loss to Panthers
“Honestly, I didn’t like it but I’m his coach so there’s smarter people that me to work that one out.”
Asked if he thought it was a so-called hip-drop tackle, Cleary replied: “Don’t ask me, don’t ask me, I’m not going to answer that.
“I just didn’t like it, and it hurt him.”
Munster was not penalised or placed on report, however the match review committee is likely to take a close look at the tackle.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy conceded: “It didn’t probably look good but they (the match officials) didn’t see too much wrong with it, so yeah.
Meanwhile, Cleary was at a loss to explain Viliame Kikau’s match-saving effort after the Penrith giant somehow stopped Justin Olam from scoring what would have been the winning try after the siren.
“I don’t know how to describe that, it’s just I suppose sometimes the pain of losing drives you to do things you wouldn’t normally do, so that’s the only way I can best describe that,” Cleary said.
“… I’m just trying to work out how you find the effort to do that.
“In those moments some guys just freeze and hope that it gets done by someone else.
“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him, but I hope he keeps doing it.”
The Panthers boss praised Matt Burton’s performance after filling in for half-back Nathan Cleary (concussion) but refused to confirm the Bulldogs-bound playmaker will be rewarded with a bench spot in the coming weeks.
“That’s a huge game for a kid to come into considering the amount of publicity that’s been around him and I thought he handled himself really well and he’ll learn a lot out of that game,” Cleary said.
“I don’t know (what role Burton will play moving forward), it just depends what we need.
“You have a successful season with a whole squad and we’re three rounds in and he’s already played in a big game for us and done well.
“So yeah, I dare say he’s going to be a big part of what we do which is what I’ve said all along.”
Cleary confirmed full-back Dylan Edwards suffered a suspected broken hand in the Round 3 win.
