Nathan Cleary played through the pain of a busted shoulder and Stephen Crichton etched his name into grand final folklore as the Panthers won their third premiership with a nail-biting victory over South Sydney on Sunday night.
Redemption has come for the Panthers with their 14-12 win, just 12 months after their heart-breaking loss to the Melbourne Storm.
It is the Panthers’ third premiership after titles in 1991 and 2003, but the first for head coach Ivan Cleary after missing out in 2011 with the Warriors and then last season.
The win came off the back of 57% possession for most of the match, brick wall-defence, and the relentless kicking game by the Panthers – Nathan Cleary making 20 of 26 kicks to add up to over 750 metres.
Some soft defence led to both teams scoring early tries.
Panthers centre Matt Burton accelerated through a hole opened up by Campbell Graham coming off his line too early. Then four minutes later, Cody Walker busted through three defenders on a 30-metre run to the Panthers line to square things up at 6-6.
A Cleary penalty brought up an 8-6 half-time lead to the Panthers. Then four minutes after the break Reynolds booted a penalty to lock it up for a second time.
Penrith tried desperately to get ahead. First a Cleary offload to Viliame Kikau was ruled forward, as was a Dylan Edwards’ tap-on to winger Stephen Crichton.
But Crichton got his grand final moment not long after, when he intercepted a Walker pass to sprint 45 metres to the line untouched.
The Panthers looked home at 14-8 but Souths hit back with six minutes left on the clock when Alex Johnston touched down for the 30th and most important try of his record-breaking season.
Reynolds looked like he was curling the sideline conversion over but it swerved late and the score remained 14-12.
In other action from the game, Jai Arrow failed an HIA after Kikau was placed on report for a swinging left arm into the Souths back rower’s head. Rabbitohs centre Dane Gagai passed his HIA after hitting the hip of Panthers centre Paul Momirovski.
Penrith and South Sydney created history when they ran onto Suncorp Stadium for the first grand final in premiership history to be played outside Sydney.
And this title decider will live long in league folklore as one of the most thrilling contests with both teams throwing everything at their opponents over the course of 80 minutes.