Star NRL player Nathan Cleary has proven to be one of the super champions of the rugby league game after he managed to engineer the greatest comeback in grand final history to give Penrith an historic NRL 26-24 win over Brisbane.
The win handed the Panthers their third successive premiership in the row.
Down 24-8 with 18 minutes to play, Cleary set up two tries and scored one of his own in the last minutes to give the Panthers the lead and earn himself a second Clive Churchill Medal as the Man of the Match.
The most crucial of those came with three minutes left when Cleary darted back through the middle of the field to score and then convert take a two-point match-winning lead.
Penrith then held on for the final minutes, with Scott Sorensen intercepting a Reece Walsh offload to end Brisbane’s hopes of victory.
The win overtakes Melbourne’s comeback from 14 points down against St George Illawarra in 1999 as the biggest-ever in a decider.
The victory also stakes Penrith’s claim as one of the all-time great rugby league sides, becoming the first team since Parramatta in 1983 to win three straight titles.