Wayne Bennett has hit out at Ivan Cleary after the Penrith coach called for the NRL to clamp down on pre-match manipulation of referees, claiming it impacted Saturday night's qualifying final. In a fiery aftermath to South Sydney's shock 16-10 victory, Bennett and Cleary's war of words continued into the press conference with both coaches clearly frustrated at each other. The drama sparked when Bennett went to the NRL after the two teams' round-23 clash, complaining that Penrith blockers were moving sideways and backwards to stop kick pressure. That information reached the Panthers, prompting Cleary to go public last week in a plea to the NRL for them to protect his kickers from being hit illegally. However, that only annoyed Bennett further, who on Friday launched an attack on both the Panthers' tactics and the NRL after he believed they leaked the information. He was the one who came out and started mouthing off ... If he is critical he is critical of himself," Bennett said. Bennett said he agreed with Cleary on public comment, but defended his right to ask questions of officials and again insinuated the NRL had leaked to Penrith. "Ivan worked for the referees before he worked in coaching, I've got to assume he still has mates there," Bennett said.
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