Penrith Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary has admitted the team did not handle the sex scandals that engulfed the club well at the start of 2019.

Coming off an impressive 2018 campaign, several leaked videos sent the organisation into a spin with Cleary telling Nine News on Thursday that the players made the mistake of not addressing the situation as a team.

“It did affect us a bit, as much as we never really spoke about it, which was probably the worst thing to do looking back,” Cleary said.

“We can’t really make excuses for what happened last year. All the stuff that went on in the off-season, it was ultimately down to us and we had the team to do it.”

Cleary was recently spotted in Las Vegas with the man about to face court over the videos – Tyrone May.