‘Did it light a fire? Probably’: Ivan reveals how brutal snub reignited fuming Panthers star

Dylan Edwards has rocketed into this season after the heartbreak of losing his Test fullback jersey, Panthers coach Ivan Cleary says — with ominous messages rife from the four-time premiership winning coach after a 40-4 demolition of the Roosters.

Penrith destroyed their supposed fellow title contender on Friday night at Allianz Stadium, with winger Thomas Jenkins a four-try hero — but the form of Edwards a hot topic after he cleary outpointed reigning Dally M Medallist James Tedesco.

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Plenty have been fitting up Tedesco to reclaim the NSW State of Origin fullback spot from Edwards, while the Panthers ace lost his Kangaroos No.1 jersey to Broncos megastar Reece Walsh for last year’s Ashes series.

Playing hurt last season while otherwise in the prime of his career, and after a historic four-year run at club level, it was a bitter blow for Edwards; even taking into account Walsh’s outrageous form spike en route to a premiership of his own.

On Friday, Edwards ran 131 metres and scored two tries against the Roosters to send an emphatic retort, with Cleary saying that a healthy pre-season was a major factor — as was his Test snub.

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“He was outstanding tonight,” Cleary said post-match of the 2022 Clive Churchill Medallist, who boasts six Test caps and five Origin games.

“He’s been good in all three games but tonight was I reckon might have been his best of the year so far.

“You could see it coming in the pre-season. Did it (the Test snub) light a fire? Probably, yeah.

“I think he’s already mentioned that he felt he landed in last year a little underdone, coming off surgery and sort of just picked up little injuries along the way. Still had a decent year but probably not to Dyl’s standards.

“He’s like a lot of guys in our team, I feel a lot of guys are ready. They’ve trained hard, experience that they know how to get themselves ready and other guys have just sort of followed along.

“We’ve prepared well in the pre-season and there’s a lot of guys across the board that are playing well. If you get that, then the scoreboard’s going to look after itself.”

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Edwards even had an early flashpoint with Tedesco: the Roosters No.1 was lucky not to be sin-binned after tipping his Panthers rival on his head in an awkward end to an otherwise vanilla tackle. The Panthers scored on the next set and ultimately, Edwardshad the last laugh.

Nathan Cleary warned that the entire spine had entered the season in far better health, intent on hunting down the club’s fifth premiership in six years. Edwards was coming off shoulder surgery last season, and wasn’t alone.

“I still think there’s a long way to go, it’s Round 3 – but in terms of this point, definitely compared to last year we’re streets ahead,” Nathan Cleary said.

“Our whole spine had surgery last year, so we were probably all a bit underdone and weren’t able to build that combination; where we were able to do that this pre-season. The more we get our legs under us and get a bit of confidence with what we’re doing, the better we’ll get.”

Cleary warned that his second-year partnership with young five-eighth Blaize Talagi was developing well, after the former Eels star partnered him off the back of four titles with Jarome Luai in the N0.6.

“It’s a lot of reps but it’s probably a feel thing as well, and just sort of being able to understand each other’s games,” Nathan Cleary said.

“I think we’re doing that quite well to start the year. There’s still a long way to go but really enjoying Blaize and I’s partnership beginning to flourish. But a long way to go, it’s been very fun and I’m sure there’s a lot more fun times to come, but good to see those sort of combinations we’ve been working on at training come out on the field.”

Ivan Cleary gave a cool appraisal of his side’s Roosters rout, which came off the back of an 88% completion rate. He wasn’t pleased at conceding a fairly soft opening try to Roosters centre Robert Toia.

The Panthers are currently leading the NRL not just at 3-0, but with an astonishing 82-10 for and against; conceding below one try per game on average. Yet Cleary’s message was clear: his mighty team can get far better, and his players have more to give.

“The scorelines and defensive front are really pleasing but I just think we’re putting into action what we trained for in the pre-season. Not just physically, but mentally and the things we want to do. Show up for,” Cleary said.

“Tonight was far from perfect. I think we started a little slow, I thought the Roosters got the jump on us a bit there, which they can do; they’re quite good at that. Pretty physical, a lot of blokes that are hard to tackle and Toia’s try kind of showed that. But we were just able to manage our way through that and again, midway through the second half they were looking a bit dangerous and we managed our way through that as well and finished the game well defensively. Finished it off really strongly.

“The best part about tonight was just to be able to win and kind of navigate our way through difficult situations. I thought that showed some good signs.”