'Never an excuse': Racial abuse deserves lifetime ban, says Panthers duo

Penrith players James Tamou and Nathan Cleary would support the NRL if lifetime bans were issued for any Central Coast Stadium spectators found to have racially abused Brent Naden on Friday.

Eight people were evicted after the Penrith winger was taunted during the 18-12 win over the Warriors and an NRL Integrity Unit investigation into the incident is likely to finalised by the end of the week.

A number of other fans have come forward to give evidence to the NRL, with Fox Sports footage to be reviewed as well.

A NRL spokesman said it already had the power to ban people from games "for a long period of time" and had done so in previous proven abuse against Greg Inglis at a match in 2018 and Latrell Mitchell via social media. 

The question of banning those responsible for life received applause from Tamou and Cleary.

"Absolutely, racial abuse is something else … there's got to be some sort of punishment," the 31 year-old skipper said.

Cleary added: "I think that's a justifiable outcome – there should definitely be repercussions.

"There's never any excuse for racial slurs or anything like that."

It was put to Tamou that perhaps Indigenous leaders within the NRL should sit down with the ejected fans and their families to try to educate them on the damage of such abuse.

"That's a great idea. That hits the nail on the head there on how it affects people," Tamou said.

"Also being man enough to chip your mate if you hear something like that. Just having that option there would be good," he said, adding that Naden went into his shell at full-time.

"He put his headphones on after the game and everyone knows that Brent Naden is out there and loves a chat. So it obviously rattled him.

Personal attacks on family, race and stuff like that is overstepping the boundary. It's disgusting.

Nathan Cleary

"It's not wanted, and not what anyone wants to see."

Cleary said players knew they were targets for criticism about their play and team performances.

"But personal attacks on family, race and stuff like that is overstepping the boundary. It's disgusting," the NSW Origin halfback said.

"Just because you are a spectator doesn’t mean you have the right to say stuff like that.

"A bit of banter that's all good for both teams but personal attacks, family, race, religion, should be totally off limits. People caught doing that shouldn't be allowed to watch games."

Watching Penrith play is giving a lot of their fans great pleasure.

With six rounds left and a point clear of the pack at the top of the table, the Panthers can give their first minor premiership since 2003 a real crack.

"Obviously it would be awesome to win it. The Storm are winning every game each week and they're only a point behind us," Cleary said.

"To be honest, we haven’t really spoken about it that much but it comes back to learning lessons each week.

"Just focusing on the game ahead has been working well so far this year. That's the main reason we're on this run and hopefully we can keep it going."

The Panthers are after their 10th win on the trot when they host the Sharks on Friday night.

Cleary is not an advocate of having to drop a game to rekindle the killer instinct. And he definitely doesn't want to lost to the Sharks even though Shaun Johnson was an idol of his growing up.

"As a group none of us really like losing so I don’t think we need to lose a game to get better," he said.

Tamou remembers how quick things can turn for the worse so he'd like the wins to keep coming.

"It's got a lot to do with last year and not being good enough to make the top eight. A lot of us are still hurting about that. The fire is still burning," he said.

"That has a lot to do with the way we faced the pre-season and how we're going this year."