BREAKING: Ivan Cleary ‘set to leave’ Panthers in bombshell call as representative link emerges

Ivan Cleary is reportedly set to call an end on his time as Penrith Panthers coach at a club announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

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According to 9News’ Danny Weidler, Cleary will likely announce that he will finish as head coach of the Panthers at the end of his current contract (ending 2027).

Code Sports reports Cleary will pursue other opportunities and is unlikely to join a rival NRL club. This could see him shift into representative football or a coaching director role.

The Panthers are tipped to look internally with assistant Peter Wallace looming as a leading candidate to take over from Cleary in a coaching succession plan.

The revelation comes after the 55-year-old led the club to four premierships in the last five years and five NRL Grand Finals in six years.

He is scheduled to appear in front of media at 2pm on Wednesday.

“There’s supposed to be an announcement from the Penrith Panthers around 2 o’clock today about Ivan Cleary’s future,” Weidler said.

“Now everybody’s been thinking it was an extension of his time at the Panthers but the information I’m getting right now is Ivan Cleary is likely to say 2027 will be the last as the Penrith Panthers coach.

“And if that’s the case, that is huge news. Now, this is not confirmed as yet but my sources are telling me that could be the situation that we could face out at Penrith in a couple of hours of time that Ivan Cleary could announce that.

“He’s long held a desire to be a coaching director. I don’t know whether that is part of his plans because all of this at the moment is just information I am hearing right now.

“We will find out the full story at around 2 o’clock today.”

The announcement is set to shine the spotlight on the future of son Nathan who is off-contract at the end of the 2027 season.

He is one of a host of Panthers stars who are able to negotiate with rival clubs from November 1, including Isaah Yeo, Brian To’o, Liam Martin, Moses Leota, Isaiah Papali’i, Mitch Kenny and Blaize Talagi

Ivan, meanwhile, told the Sydney Morning Herald last year that representative coaching appealed to him.

“I have thought about it a bit more lately, I don’t know why,” Cleary said.

“I’m not sure whether I really want to or not, but it’s starting to intrigue me a little bit more, yeah.

“There’s something pretty cool about coaching the best players, good players with guys from other teams that I’ve coached against. It’s a different dynamic.

“Just the whole thing where you don’t have a lot of time [to prepare] and so that’s something I haven’t really done much of.

“I was assistant coach of the Kiwis in a World Cup, I really enjoyed that as well. One of the things I really liked about it was working with guys from other teams and just trying to get a team together quickly.”

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