Nathan Cleary breaks Broncos hearts with brutal 40m field goal dagger

The Penrith Panthers have made harder work of their round 6 clash with the Brisbane Broncos than anyone in the NRL believed.

The unbeaten ladder leaders claimed the 20-12 win at Suncorp Stadium with Nathan Cleary pulling off some massive plays to bring his side home.

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Unbackable favourites, the Broncos almost pulled off one of the great upsets, leading 12-10 at halftime and for much of the second half.

The Broncos held the Panthers at 12-all for much of the second half, but Cleary once again showed why he is arguably the best halfback in the competition.

Cleary had kicked a 40/20 earlier in the half but he broke the Broncos’ backs with a two-point field goal in the 73rd minute.

It was just the second two-point field goal since it was brought back into the competition during the off-season, after Adam Reynolds did it for South Sydney last week against the Broncos.

In commentary, Braith Anasta called Cleary “the Ice Man”.

“Stand up and deliver,” he said. “The bigger game, the better he plays. The bigger the moment, the more he delivers.”

And to top it off, Cleary scored in the 78th minute to finally ice the game.

“Nathan Cleary, he was the difference between the two sides,” Matty Johns said on Fox League’s The Late Show after the game.

And social media was quick to praise the star for his incredible finish to the game.

After the match, Panthers teammate Kurt Capewell heaped praise on his halfback.

“Yeah, he’s clutch isn’t he?,” he told ABC Sport. “He held us together tonight. One thing Nathan’s really good at is game management, and he showed that tonight.”

But the biggest compliment came from his dad, coach Ivan Cleary.

Asked in his press conference about his brilliant final seven minutes, Cleary said “he’s getting better”.

“The game’s slowing down for him a bit and and the game’s slowing down a bit in those big moments. He’s had a fair few of them now and not only that, he got the execution part of it as well,” he said. “It was definitely good having him out there tonight.”