Ivan Cleary’s second coming at Penrith has been nothing short of brilliant as he prepares to celebrate 400 games as a coach on Thursday night.

In typical Cleary fashion, the Panthers chief had no idea about the milestone – nor did the players – when the Herald raised it on Tuesday, just two days out from the grand final replay with Parramatta.

At 52, Cleary becomes just the 10th coach in history to make it to 400 games, with Dolphins supercoach Wayne Bennett (893) still well out in front of the leaderboard. Other active coaches on the honour roll include Wests Tigers’ Tim Sheens (672), Melbourne’s Craig Bellamy (529) and Canberra’s favourite son Ricky Stuart (470).

Cleary spent six years at the New Zealand Warriors, including a grand final appearance in 2011, three years at Penrith the first time around, then two seasons at the Wests Tigers where his win percentage dipped to 42 per cent, but he still somehow inspired Luke Brooks to Dally M halfback of the year.

Since returning to the foot of the mountains in 2019, Cleary has won 79 from 104 games for a 76 per cent strike rate. The only thing more impressive is his long grey hair