There is a gulf as deep as the Mariana Trench between Penrith and most sides in the competition but it spoke volumes about their mentality when they were down to 12 men in the first half as Leota cooled his jets.

The Titans were looking reasonably sound at that stage and were entitled to think this was their way into the match to see if they could rattle the cage of the unbeaten grand finalists. Instead, Nathan Cleary took over, saved a try at one end, scored one at the other and started the train in motion.

Fisher-Harris smashed his way over four minutes later to make it two tries for Penrith while they were a player short, while they managed to hold the ball for nine out of the 10 minutes of Leota’s sin-binning. Gold Coast never looked like recovering and only managed to find some flow late in the second half when the result was a foregone conclusion.

“I thought the best we played was when we had 12 men. We kept it simple,” Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said. “I was disappointed with the last 20. We had a really good try that got disallowed and it took the wind out of our sails a little bit. There’s actually a few things to work on out of that game.”

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The younger Cleary was wondrous again. He ended up with three tries and the final one, in the dying minutes, was his best. He is known for his crisp skills but this one was pure heart and toughness as he fought his way through defenders to scramble to the line. He just wanted it more.

There were some statement performances at Magic Round and Penrith had to wait and watch before they were let loose in the final match. They took care of business in customary fashion and, like their main premiership rivals Melbourne, have made a habit of not losing the ones they should win.

Things may get more interesting for Penrith next week when they take on the Rabbitohs in Dubbo. Souths will be bolstered by the returning Latrell Mitchell and they will need a giant performance by their star fullback to be able to compete with a side that seems destined for another decider.