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Penrith coach Ivan Cleary will be hoping Saturday night is the last time this year his NRL competition leaders have to play his old Wests Tigers side.
If he wasn't already motivated to knock West Tigers out of the NRL finals race, now Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has even more incentive.
A victory over the Tigers on Saturday night at Panthers Stadium would spare Cleary, until at least next year, more endless grillings over his acrimonious departure from the joint venture club in 2018.
Tigers chief executive Justin Pascoe re-opened old wounds again this week, accusing Cleary of disrespecting his club with the manner in which he walked out of Concord to coach his son Nathan at the Panthers.
Cleary on Friday made it patently clear he'd grown tired of discussing the bad blood.
Despite conceding "of course" he wishes he could have departed on better terms, Cleary is clearly desperate to move on.
"I made my comments pretty clear at the time. At this stage, I don't really want to be adding any more fuel to any fire that may be brewing for this game," he said.
"I think I'd probably be up to my quota in terms of promoting this game in the past, so I might leave it at that at the moment."
Cleary is also over talking about why he blew kisses to an abusive Tigers fan from the coaches' box when emotions boiled over after Penrith's round-eight win over his old side at Bankwest Stadium.
But while he's yet to reconcile his fractured relationship with Pascoe, Cleary was happy to report he'd kissed and made up with the heckler.
"Probably about eight weeks ago I got sick of that," he said of the regrettable incident.
"But, you know, I did it so that's the reality.
"I made my comments afterwards about how I wished it didn't happen, but it did.
"Since then I exchanged emails with the guy at hand so it's all good. We sorted it out."
The best way to silence Tigers fans is helping his pace-setting Panthers eliminate their ninth-placed rivals, who currently languish four points adrift of the top eight with only five games remaining before the finals.
But the Panthers will have to do that without star hooker Api Koroisau and destructive second-rower Viliame Kikau.
"Obviously they're two key guys in our team and have been throughout the season," Cleary said.
"Of course we'd like those guys playing but they're not so it's an opportunity for other guys and we're looking forward to those opportunities."
Three points ahead of Melbourne at the top of the table, Penrith can take another big stride towards the minor premiership with a record-extending 11th consecutive win.
