Andrew Johns' staggering claim about Nathan Cleary as NRL icon blasts Phil Gould 'insult'

😃 The good: Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai 'best halves combo ever'

😔 The bad: Phil Gould demotion branded 'insulting' and 'disrespectful'

😡 The ugly: AFL supporters jump on empty seats at NRL grand final

Andrew Johns' staggering call on Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai

Has the game ever produced a better five-eighth/halfback pairing than Panthers duo Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai? Immortal Andrew Johns doesn’t think so.

"They are the greatest halves combination we've seen," he said as Penrith suffocated Melbourne out of the 2024 grand final. That's some statement considering the 6s and 7s Joey watched and played with and against.

In the last 40 years alone - at club and rep level - we've had Brett Kenny-Peter Sterling, Laurie Daley-Ricky Stuart, Kevin Walters-Allan Langer, Wally Lewis-Allan Langer, Darren Lockyer-Johnathan Thurston, Steve Mortimer-Terry Lamb and Geoff Toovey-Cliffy Lyons.

The Cleary-Luai Show has now come to a close with four consecutive premierships in the vault. "No one’s going to do this again," Luai said at full-time.

He may well be right. That the two childhood mates will never play in the same team again is one of rugby league's great tragedies. Who knows how many more titles they could have won together in a Penrith jersey.

Cleary must now begin work with a new No.6 but there appears no limits to what he can achieve in the game. Johns hinted/predicted Cleary will one day join him at the Immortals' table.

Joey said: "Fingers crossed injury doesn't stop him, but we all know his greatness right now. With the way his career is going…you know where he is going."

Phil Gould 'insult' labelled 'disrespectful' by Channel 9

Channel 9 sidelining Phil Gould from the NRL grand final call has been labelled "insulting" and likened to leaving Richie Benaud out of the station's cricket coverage back in the day. Gus co-commentated the State Championship final between Newtown and Norths Devils but was MIA by the time the Panthers and Storm ran out for the NRL decider.

He was brought back for brief cameos at half-time and again at full-time but was on mute while the game was on. Channel 9 gave no official reason why Gould wasn't part of the call team for the biggest game of the season, but word is he was punted because Queensland viewers don’t cop him.

Veteran broadcaster Peter Peters, who covered grand finals for print and radio over five decades, was stunned by the decision. "They are obviously happy to cop mediocrity in Queensland but we'd prefer professionals in NSW," Zorba told Yahoo Sport Australia.

"Whatever you think about Gus, he speaks his mind and comes across as someone with great authority and knowledge of our game. To leave him out of the grand final match commentary is like Channel 9 leaving the late, great Richie Benaud out of the cricket coverage when he was at his prime. It's insulting.

"If Kerry Packer was still around and in charge, there's no way Gus would have been left out. Whether you like him or you don't, we all respect him and I think this is a show of disrespect by Channel 9, who have really slipped in their sporting coverage of recent years."

AFL types off the mark with criticism of NRL grand final

Geez, some AFL types are desperate to put one over the NRL. They were banging on the social media drum in the hours leading up to the grand final, bagging the NRL for not selling out Accor Stadium.

We checked in with Ticketek and it was true - there were a handful of tickets available. Lots of theories were put forward as to why that might be the case.

Price? Panther premiership fatigue? Lack of support for Storm in Sydney? Night-time GF? The game's better on TV? The Kid Laroi factor? All of the above?

While there might have been a few spare seats, there was still a very healthy 80,156 at Homebush to watch Penrith continue their historic march to a fourth straight premiership. Still, smug AFL fans claimed it as some sort of victory, pointing out their game attracted more than 100,000 for the Swans-Lions decider.

It appears the attitude starts from the top. Just last week, AFL boss Andrew Dillon was reportedly asked if he was ever tempted to ring NRL CEO Andrew Abdo after a few drinks to point out rugby league's shortcomings as a spectator sport.

Dillon apparently wisecracked he didn't need alcohol to work that out. At least the NRL grand final stayed a contest for more than 20 minutes.