'That's a gee-up': Ivan Cleary's hilarious 6am jab at Queenslanders, his son after winning premiership
If anyone deserved to enjoy a few beers on Sunday night, it was Penrith coach Ivan Cleary.
The 52-year-old had just steered the Panthers to their third premiership in three years, coming from 16 points down to beat the Broncos 26-24 in an instant classic at Accor Stadium.
But what the coach didn't expect was to front up for a live television interview at 6am as he was trying to leave the celebrations.
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Cleary was "sneaking out the back door" when Nine's Today managed to grab him for an interview, and the coach looked a little worse for wear.
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary was a little groggy after his grand final win. Nine
He took the opportunity to have a crack at Today host Karl Stefanovic and his home state of Queensland.
"Queenslanders kind of fail at the end a lot of the time, so we knew that they (the Broncos) would falter," Cleary smiled.
"That's a gee-up (Karl) and you know it.
"Nah, halfway through the second half I was like 'shit, get us out of here', we were in all sorts. I've got no idea how we managed to pull that back."
Cleary was asked about his son, Panthers halfback Nathan, who won his second Clive Churchill Medal and scored the winning try late in the grand final.
"I actually said to him yesterday that if I'd married someone else he would have been a pretty shit player," the coach joked.
"I've got to thank his mum for everything that he's got, because it's certainly not from me.
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"You know what, he owes me, too. I've driven him to that many things, I've made lunches for him and done all this stuff.
"But he's actually now making my life easy, so I love you Nathan."
Stefanovic asked Cleary if he had "had a thousand beers", but the coach wasn't too keen to divulge what the celebrations had entailed.
He did, though, pay tribute to Panthers fans and the entire community of Sydney's western suburb.
"Couldn't be better, honestly. I feel pretty good about life. It was an incredible game, I still can't believe we actually won the game," Cleary said.
"Our community is everything to us, and to come back and see how excited everyone was, the look on everyone's faces, how happy it made them feel... I can't explain how good that makes us feel."
