Penrith’s Matt Eisenhuth makes retirement admission as Ivan Cleary apologises for NRL grand final selection call

Matt Eisenhuth says he would rather retire than sulk about being a last-minute scratching from Penrith’s fourth consecutive NRL premiership victory.

Eisenhuth had been the odd-man out in the Panthers’ three previous grand final appearances, narrowly missing selection in the forward rotation for wins over South Sydney, Parramatta and Brisbane.

But the journeyman looked a strong chance to feature in Sunday’s decider against Melbourne given Scott Sorensen’s hamstring struggles towards the end of the regular season.

When Sorensen made it through the Panthers’ most important training session of the week, though, the second-rower leapfrogged Eisenhuth into Ivan Cleary’s 17.

Relegated to 18th man, Eisenhuth was forced to watch from the sidelines at Accor Stadium as the Panthers sealed a historic fourth consecutive premiership with their 14-6 win over the Storm.

But Eisenhuth disagreed with those who felt he had been the hard-luck story of grand final week.

“I get what they’re saying. If you ask my wife or my parents, they’ll probably say the same thing. But it’s a team sport,” he told AAP.

“The moment I start thinking about myself and put myself first, before the boys, I probably should retire. It’s not what this team’s about, it’s not what this sport’s about. It’s team before yourself. I think everyone lives by that. It was just my time to do that this week.”

Coach Cleary, who handed Eisenhuth his NRL debut at Wests Tigers, felt guilty about once again denying the prop the chance to play in a premiership victory.

But Eisenhuth had always been behind carpool buddy Sorensen in his bid to recover, and reassured the coach he need make no apologies.

“I could tell that ‘Ive’ was disappointed for me. He apologised to me and said sorry,” explained Eisenhuth.

“But I was like, ‘Mate, you’ve got nothing to apologise for’. That’s the name of the game, I knew the situation I was in.

“’Soro’ got through the big session throughout the week, and I was pretty confident he was going to be (fine) just from driving with him every day.”

And there are plenty of reasons for Eisenhuth to be positive.

The forward played in the two finals wins that booked Penrith a spot in the 2024 decider, won his first premiership ring as 18th man, and he’s signed a new two-year deal to remain at Penrith.

He knows that given Penrith’s ongoing dynasty, 2024 may not have been his final chance to finally play on grand final day.

“I couldn’t see a reason to leave this place,” Eisenhuth said.

“Even if another team wanted me, I didn’t really even open up conversations with any other teams because I don’t see why you’d want to leave a place that’s winning so much.”