Nathan Cleary lifts the lid on harsh reality check that shaped Penrith Panthers' NRL dynasty

Penrith are vying to become the first team in almost 60 years to win four straight NRL premierships when they face Melbourne in Sunday's grand final but Nathan Cleary says none of it would have been possible if they had won the competition in 2020. The 26-20 loss to Melbourne in the grand final four years ago left Cleary and his teammates strewn all over the field in dismay as their fairytale run came to an end.

In 2019, the Panthers missed the top eight altogether, finishing 10th. But the following year they went on an incredible run to the big show. In the regular season, Penrith lost just one game and went into the showdown with Melbourne as favourites only to come up agonisingly short.

An experienced Melbourne side led by Cameron Smith in his 430th and final NRL game got off to a flyer and left Penrith shellshocked and without answers. The Storm rocketed out to a 22-0 half-time lead before Ryan Papenhuyzen put the game beyond doubt with a solo 80-metre try shortly after the break. Penrith came roaring back into the contest to come within six points, but it was all too little too late.

And in the aftermath of the 2020 grand final, many questioned how Penrith would respond to the devastating defeat as many teams who have fallen at the final hurdle fall off the wagon the following season - as seen with Brisbane this year. But it worked in the opposite way for Penrith, as now four years on they have their sights on an unprecedented fourth straight grand final.

And Cleary says the 2020 defeat shaped the club into what they are today and believes none of it would have been possible if they didn't lose that first grand final. "At the time it felt like the worst thing ever," Cleary told NRL.com. "If you look back, we needed it at the time. We've been able to propel ourselves out of that and learn a lot. It's been a big part of what we've been able to do the previous four seasons."

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Dylan Edwards and Moses Leota reflect on 2020 grand final defeat

Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards says the lesson Melbourne taught them in 2020 prepared them for their next three grand final successes. "We got jumped early," Edwards told NRL.com. "We got taught a lesson that day about what grand finals are all about." While Moses Leota echoed a similar message. "I remember losing and crying," he said. "They taught us a lesson in that grand final. I felt like that fuelled us and it's made us who we are now."

And the most brutal bit of feedback Penrith had to cop that year was the belief that Melbourne had walked over them and that moving forward Panthers needed to stand up for themselves and not back down in the future. "It's hard to say if it was the most important game (in our run), but it was definitely an important part of our journey," Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said this week.

"It definitely lit a fuse of fire in that we wanted to make sure we learned from that. We had a really good run but we were taught a lesson that day. Not just by the Storm, but just on big occasions."