Latrell Mitchell's brilliant act for elderly fan after nasty incident

Latrell Mitchell has been praised for a classy act of generosity after accidentally striking an elderly fan with a ball in the dying stages of South Sydney's loss to Penrith.

Mitchell kicked the ball into the stands in an attempt to stop the Panthers from scoring a try in the final minute of Friday night's 26-12 loss.

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The ball accidentally struck an elderly woman sitting in the front few rows of the crowd, with onlookers immediately worried for the fan.

But thankfully she was uninjured, and Mitchell showed his class with a brilliant gesture after full-time.

The South Sydney fullback went to check on the woman after the match, giving her a big hug and gifting her his boots to apologise.

The nice moment was widely praised on social media.

Nathan Cleary makes statement in Panthers return

Much was made of Nathan Cleary's return for Penrith in the grand final rematch on Friday night, but in the end it was two of the Panthers' lesser-known quantities who came to the fore.

Cleary got through his comeback game unscathed and kicked three goals in the win to ensure their unbeaten run to start the 2022 season remains intact.

"I was nervous all week just about playing again and seeing how I'd go," said Cleary, who returned from off-season shoulder surgery.

"But once I got there today, I knew I was ready to go and I was quite confident with the preparation I've done.

"I'm still trying to get my feet and I'm very blessed to play in this team."

Cleary's return meant the Panthers got one of their grand final heroes back on deck, but the contribution from two of those who weren't part of last year's premiership win proved critical.

Centre Izack Tago has been filling the void left by Matt Burton and grabbed a try, while winger Taylan May scored a double, the second of which was a tip-toeing effort down the sidelined to dive past the covering Rabbitohs defence to score.

Tago and May, who was standing in for the injured Brian To'o, were unheralded commodities with a handful of games between them at the start of this year but have blossomed on Penrith's left edge.

"They're really exciting both of them as individuals, but they actually work really well together," said Panthers coach Ivan Cleary.

"They're good mates and have got a good connection.

"Apart from one little forced offload that Izack had that kind of gave Souths an opportunity to score the second try, I thought they were pretty clean in terms of errors.

"In a game of pretty high intensity, that's really good."

with AAP

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