The Penrith Panthers have staged the greatest comeback ever seen at an NRL Grand Final to beat the Brisbane Broncos.
The Broncos and Panthers have played out one of the most enthralling premiership deciders in recent memory at Accor Stadium in Sydney on Sunday night.
Panthers captain Nathan Cleary has led his side to a historic three-peat with a stunning performance dragging his side from 16 points behind to clinch the 2023 premiership.
The game began at a pace usually only seen during State of Origin matches with several huge hits and relentless play the ball speed.
Cleary stood up for arguably one of his greatest performances leading his side back from a huge deficit without five-eighth Jarome Luai for most of the second half.
The Broncos shot out to a 16 point lead after 55 minutes thanks to a second half hat trick from Ezra Mam and the contest looked to be almost over as the Brisbane side continued to threaten the Panthers line.
After Luai went down the Panthers looked dead and buried but Cleary rose above setting up a try and scoring one of his own in the greatest Grand Final comeback ever seen.
Penrith’s Grand Final experience showed in the first 20 minutes having no errors and a perfect completion rate to the Broncos’ six errors and less than 50 per cent completion rate.
Once Brisbane settled into the game the young side showed resilience in defence to hold the Panthers to just eight points before scoring a try of their own on the stroke of half time.
There was a scare for Brisbane fans when captain Adam Reynolds went down appearing to clutch at his groin but the star playmaker managed to play out the game while the Panthers lost Jarome Luai around the 50 minute mark.
This is a developing story. MORE TO COME.
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