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Nathan Cleary has kicked a golden-point field goal to give Penrith a 9-8 NRL victory over the Wests Tigers on Friday.
Penrith star Nathan Cleary has nailed a 40-metre golden-point field goal to claim a dramatic 9-8 NRL victory over the Wests Tigers.
The Panthers were trailing by six points with one minute to go on Friday when Dylan Edwards scored to set up a pressure kick for Cleary after the siren.
And the son of Penrith coach Ivan nailed the sideline conversion before piloting the game-winner to send the 14,002-strong home crowd into raptures.
Asked about his emotions when his son kicked the winner, Ivan said: "What do you think? I was pretty stoked.
"That doesn't happen every day, and it obviously added to all the theatre of the whole week and the whole build-up that everyone drove.
"You've just got to find a way to win sometimes and we did that tonight."
Cleary's field goal came after Tigers halfback Luke Brooks missed two one-point attempts either side of fulltime, including one that scraped the post.
Tigers five-eighth Josh Reynolds, playing in his first match of the season, also hit the upright late in regular time, failing to seal the victory.
The Tigers also had problems from the tee, with goalkicker Esan Marsters missing all three of his shots, including a first-half penalty from in front.
Their problems with the boot initially appeared irrelevant as the Tigers extended Penrith's try-scoring drought to over two matches.
But Edwards' try, which came after being shunted to the wing mid-game following another error-riddled performance at fullback, ended the drought at 195 minutes.
It was a heart-stopping ending to a dour match that had the Tigers on the brink of claiming revenge over the coach who walked out on them last season.
"Our game can be cruel at times," Tigers coach Michael Maguire said.
"I was actually really proud of how they played. We've got to learn how to win those clutch moments and we definitely had our opportunities to.
"Unfortunately it didn't go our way."
Reynolds set up the lead by making two tries with deft grubbers.
It was a classy display from the former NSW Origin playmaker, who appeared to show up the incumbent Blues pairing of Cleary and James Maloney.
Their ugly start prompted former NSW champion Peter Sterling to concede he couldn't pick the Maloney-Cleary combination for Origin on recent evidence.
However, current coach Brad Fittler said during commentary duties for Channel Nine that it was too early to write them off.
About two months remain until the first State of Origin in Brisbane.
It wasn't all good news for Ivan Cleary, with second-rower Frank Winterstein feared to have suffered a major knee injury minutes into the contest.
Co-captain Isaah Yeo was also placed on report for a crusher tackle.
