'Fitting we're playing Broncos': Panthers tipped rise of grand final rivals

Many fans and bookies will claim they tipped the 2023 grand finalists, and the Panthers insist that they too predicted the Broncos would be the team standing in the way of an historic three-peat.

After finishing at the top of the ladder in the regular season, Penrith will meet Brisbane in Sunday's Telstra Premiership decider and the Panthers camp say they had been preparing since Round 1 for the Broncos to be their opponents. 

“I feel like we’ve probably been the two best teams all season so it’s pretty fitting that we’re versing each other on the big stage," Penrith co-captain Isaah Yeo told NRL.com ahead of Sunday's clash at Accor Stadium.

“They’re really fit, physical and athletic - not just their forward pack but the whole team - so we’ll certainly try and limit that this weekend.

“We’ve certainly got our work cut out for us but I’m really looking forward to the challenge."

While it’s been an incredible rise for the Broncos, who were handed their first ever wooden spoon just three years ago, Panthers coach Ivan Cleary knew a premiership contender was building in Brisbane - even though they missed last year's play-offs.

A 13-12 loss to the Broncos in their opening round clash on March 3 further convinced Cleary and his back-to-back grand final winning side that Kevin Walters' men would be 2023 premiership contenders.

"I honestly thought this would happen, if you saw the way they played last year, it was obvious potential,” Cleary said.

“They probably looked back at last year and thought that was an opportunity lost and when you looked at their side in round one, there wouldn’t be a better roster in the comp.

“That’s exactly how they played and I think they’ve probably improved as the season has gone on.”

While the Broncos had all of Brisbane believing when they got the wood over the defending premiers with a field goal in round one, the Panthers got one back at Suncorp 12 weeks later.

Cleary said after a tough start to the season with returning international stars and the pre-season World Club Challenge, his side found a way to evolve again this year to ensure they remained benchmark status.

“It was definitely a difficult start to the season for us. We had 14 players in the World Cup so and then we had the World Club challenge and that was like a grand final for St Helens and they played accordingly,” Cleary said.

“Then we faced these guys who had been preparing very hard through their pre-season. So they really started this year with a bang and we felt it.

“Then we got another couple of teams which were a bit similar so it felt like we were playing grand finals back to back earlier this season.

“There were parts of our game that we were trying to evolve but it was probably a little bit too early so we went back to what we knew and as the season has gone on, we got some wins in the bank and we were able to evolve like we wanted to.

“There’s enough variations in our game I feel as though we can add to. Obviously on the foundations of how we play and we’ll need to do that on Sunday.”