Nathan Cleary booed by fans after 'really weird' benching post-Origin as Panthers blitz Eels

The crowd at CommBank Stadium weren't afraid to deliver Nathan Cleary some interesting feedback after he was benched on Sunday.

Coming off Origin, Cleary didn't start against the Eels and when the camera panned to him during the first half, he was booed.

The halfback simply laughed it off with Andrew Johns saying on Nine: "How can you boo Nathan Cleary?"

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"World's nicest bloke."

Pre-game, Johns described the call to bench Cleary as a "masterstroke".

"Keep him out of the early action and then he'll be sitting there ready to go after 20 to 25 minutes," he said.

Phil Gould wasn't as happy with it.

"They've obviously got a plan with Nathan Cleary, seems like a strange selection to have the game's best halfback starting from the bench, there must be a reason for it or it's part of their strategy," he said.

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It wasn't the only change in the match, with Joash Papalii selected at five-eighth and Dylan Brown moved to hooker.

Once again, Gould was sceptical of the move.

"I'm still not trusting this, Joash Ppalii is a very versatile player ... I just find it really hard to contend with Dylan Brown is playing dummy half and they have Tallyn Da Silva on the bench, I'm really interested to see how this unfolds," he said.

The Eels were on the board first through Kitione Kautoga before Penrith hit back through Thomas Jenkins.

Zac Lomax put the Eels ahead in the 33rd minute with a spectacular diving effort in the corner. However, right on half time Luke Garner stepped around Lomax who had rushed in off his wing to deliver a 12-10 lead to the Panthers at the break.

"There's no need for him to come out, I don't know why he rushed which puts pressure on the defenders on the inside ... rush of blood, poor defence," Johns said of Lomax.

Gould added: "They were all marked up, it was the panic of the time clock and the Panthers pulled their pants down."

Cleary had entered the play in the 25th minute while Brown was off four minutes later.

At half time, Cleary described the experience as "really weird".

Eels forward Jack Williams also faces a nervous wait with the match review committee after he was put on report during the first half for a high tackle.

Leading 12-10 at the break, the Panthers then went into premiers mode.

Izack Tago, Paul Alamoti, Cleary and Lindsay Smith all scored in the second half with Cleary leaving the field in the 75th minute. The Panthers won 32-10.

Dylan Brown had returned only a minute beforehand.