Panthers not willing to let Clearys hit free NRL agency at the end of the year

The Penrith Panthers are trying to do everything in their power to keep Ivan and Nathan Cleary away from the NRL open market, with both able to speak to rival teams from as early as November 1 this year.

The Panthers have been preparing to hold open talks with their championship father-son duo since early February, right around when preseason hit another gear, and this month have held “preliminary conversations.”

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The hope at the Western Sydney club is that both Clearys will want to see out their respective careers in black and white, especially considering they’re so key to the Penrith dynasty. Most recently, Nathan was the halfback in every NRL grand final from 2020 to 2024, winning the latter 80% of them.

“We’re really in no rush to get anything done, but we’re confident we’ll have both of them at the club as long as they want to be here,” Panthers CEO Matt Cameron said on SEN Radio this week, though he added it is a priority.

Ivan has remained relatively quiet on what he wants to do, but his son Nathan has spoken about it several times in the build-up to the 2026 campaign.

Most recently, Nathan admitted he hadn’t thought about it too much just yet “In my mind, there’s no need to make a decision right now. I don’t want to make decisions about my future too quickly, or jump the gun on anything.”

The 28-year-old has suggested he wants to test the open market, especially with the Perth Bears and Papua New Guinea Chiefs expansion sides joining the mix, but plans to leave the fine details up to his management team.

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“At the end of the day, I love where I’m at right now. To me, I haven’t really thought too much about my future because I still have two years to run on my contract,” the Panthers halfback explained. “I understand people will start to talk about it, but it’s not in my mind at all – it still seems so far away.

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“I look at how I want to be once I retire, I want to have no regrets – and that’s with the way I play, my preparation, whether I’m enjoying myself, contract negotiations … it’s a more holistic thing rather than just about contracts. I never want it to become a distraction. [But] it still feels so far away.

“It’s hard for me to envisage not Penrith. I absolutely love Penrith, it’s home to me.”