For a man who rarely raises an eyebrow, let alone his voice, Ivan Cleary’s simple summation of Liam Martin’s critical grand final try said it all.

“I loved the try just before half-time that Romey [Jarome Luai] and Nath [Cleary] dreamed up,” Cleary snr said. “Marto timed his run perfectly off that on a play that I don’t think we’ve ever done in a game.”

Cleary was chuffed. Martin’s try against the gallant Melbourne defence capped a tactical dismantling of the minor premiers with the flair and flavour of Penrith’s prize-winning halves. And with a mix of the instinctive and the strategic, we marvel once more at the greatest side of the modern era.

Andrew Johns mentioned it more than once in commentary – the partnership between Cleary and Luai ranks as “the greatest halves combination the game has seen. Look at the record.”

The “record” reads as 78 wins from 89 games together (win percentage of 87.6), with four premierships to boot, and a combination honed over more than a decade delivered Martin’s telling try right on half-time.

Any other side would have wilted against Penrith’s 57 per cent share of possession, but Melbourne’s desperate defence kept them clinging to a two-point lead, until hooker Mitch Kenny went left, and Luai and Cleary promptly decided to swing right.

“It wasn’t a planned play,” Cleary confirmed. “I wanted [the ball] but Mitch went to Romey and I don’t think he could hear me. Lucky Romey could – he threw it back and we continued the play we were going to do anyway.”

Luai’s left-foot step has regularly seen him swinging play back left to the right over the years, and the Tigers-bound star has rarely been one to die wondering.

But flinging a pass 15 metres back across the ruck to a stationary man, with a........

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