Reigning premiers Penrith have woken from their NRL slumber to hammer the Sydney Roosters 40-12 with Nathan Cleary becoming the club’s’ record pointscorer.
The Panthers have been way below their best to start 2025 and, at 1-5 coming into Saturday night’s contest at Allianz Stadium, many were left wondering if their time in the sun was about to come to a sudden halt.
But in front of a 20,373-strong crowd, fullback Dylan Edwards, who outpointed NSW State of Origin rival James Tedesco, and Cleary helped the Panthers’ chalk up a win that keeps the flame of their premiership defence flickering.
Cleary did so by kicking six conversions and a penalty goal as he surpassed Ryan Girdler’s (1572 points) club record haul.
The 27-year-old halfback may well fancy his chances of overtaking Cameron Smith (2786 points) and becoming the greatest scorer in the history of Australian rugby league by the time he retires.
But things could have well gone the other way after the Roosters struck just four minutes in when Daniel Tupou crossed off a Mark Nawaqanitawase pass.
The Roosters were pushing to add a second in quick succession and again Nawaqanitawase was the attacking outlet.
His offload was hacked forward towards the in-goal by Tedesco who collided with Edwards as he raced after the ball.
Tedesco fell to the ground and appealed for Edwards to face punishment but the bunker deemed the Panthers fullback’s contact was incidental.
After a Naufahu Whyte high shot on the ensuing set, Penrith quickly found themselves up the other end where Cleary and Edwards combined to send Alamoti over on the right flank in the 23rd minute.
The Panthers ran a near identical play on the same edge just before halftime with Cleary and Edwards again weaving their magic to send Alamoti in at the corner.
Cleary converted both tries to surpass Girdler’s points tally to give Penrith a 12-6 halftime lead.
The halfback then added a penalty early into the second half after Roosters forward Victor Radley was pinged for an escort to make it a two-score game.
But Penrith weren’t happy with just that and they were slowly reverting to type and suffocating the Roosters in the battle for territory.
Quick-thinking hooker Mitch Kenny poked through a grubberkick after the Panthers had made nearly 80m off one set, with Isaiah Papali’i on the spot for his first Penrith try.
Penrith’s sole slip-up came when Edwards spilled a ball coming out of his own end and Rob Toia struck off a well-worked Roosters scrum play.
But they soon clicked back into gear with Blaize Talagi, Edwards, who went in off a delightful Scott Sorensen offload, and Casey McLean piling on more misery for the Roosters (2-5) in the final 20 minutes.
