Penrith General Manager Phil Gould has confirmed he and South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett had a handshake deal in place back when Bennett was the coach of the Broncos.
With the Panthers on the lookout for a new coach, Gould confirmed to Nine's 100% Footy he had agreed with Bennett to come on board and take over from Anthony Griffin before he was aware of Ivan Cleary's impending arrival.
"Wayne and I were never going to talk about it because it all happened very, very quickly," Gould said on Monday night.
"The Cleary thing bobbed up out of nowhere.
"I met with Wayne and I recommended him to the Panthers but the Ivan thing had come up in the background and I had to ring him up and say we were 'no go'.
"It didn't take too long – it was good – and we moved on with the Ivan thing."
With Gould locking in a secret handshake deal with Bennett and Panthers chairman Dave O'Neill chasing Cleary, it seems as though the two Penrith big wigs were on different pages.
However, Gould believes the pair don't have any communication problems, and just said they weren't aware of the other's plans.
"I don't think there was any miscommunication," Gould said.
"I don't think either of us anticipated what one another was doing.
"It was always my intention for Anthony Griffin to see out the season – that was always my intention.
"It just got to the point with the management and with the board where we were going to move on the following year.
"We had thoughts and discussions about what that may be and that was a discussion I had with Wayne.
"He and I just said we would never talk about it but now he has left the Broncos and gone to Souths ... we have a great coach here in Ivan Cleary."
Penrith has started the season 1-2 and face Wests Tigers on Friday night.