Following the Panthers' grand final success, Ivan Cleary has revealed the health crisis that left him in the intensive care unit during the middle of the season.
Cleary was dealing with severe health issues months after a serious knee infection led to blood clots in his lungs, which ultimately resulted in a number of weeks away from the coaches box.
Cleary's wife, Bec, revealed the shocking extent of the premiership-winning coach's illness to the Sydney Morning Herald.
โHe was struggling. He could hardly walk, he was very sick,โ Cleary revealed.
โThen he got the blood clots, that was pretty scary. If they hadn't got that when they did, who knows what could have happened?
โHe's never ever missed a day of coaching, whether he's sick or not. This year I knew how sick he was because he couldn't go to work.
โHe was just on the lounge all day, asleep on the lounge. He was really sick, sick as I'd ever seen.โ
Cleary tried his best to defy the rest requirements, monitoring several coaching sessions on crutches as the heavy lifting was done by now-departed assistants Andrew Webster and Cameron Ciraldo, who have each left for new NRL head coaching roles.
But ultimately the situation became untenable, with the Panthers coach forced into the unusual position of watching his team from well beyond the sidelines.
โIt definitely got serious,โ Cleary recalled.
โI'd been coaching for 16 years and hadn't missed a game, and then all of a sudden I missed three or four. I was lucky, the boys played well and did their jobs, but it was a pretty weird time.
โIt's a strange experience watching your team play live on the couch. What it did give me was a lot of confidence that the leaders had grown.โ
Now, while almost back to full health, Cleary must plan for next year without the coaching team who assisted him so ably this year. Webster will take the reins at the Warriors, while Ciraldo's move to the Bulldogs became one of the year's worst kept secrets.
โI'm so proud. I love them as people first, they're incredibly good at their jobs and will make those clubs better immediately. They're living their dream, (leaving) is just how it goes.
โI'm fortunate the club's happy to keep going with me, I'm happy to keep doing it and I feel like I', still improving and learning all the time.
โThose guys are awesome and totally ready to be head coaches. I can't thank them enough for what they'd one.โ
