Penrith's decision to rest players for round 18 hit a nerve at Wests Tigers but coach Ivan Cleary said he meant no disrespect to his struggling opposition.

Interim coach Brett Kimmorley used Penrith's decision to field a second-string team in round 18 to fire his side up but Ivan Cleary insisted he meant no disrespect to his struggling rivals.

All seven of Penrith's State of Origin players were granted permission to miss Sunday's game against the last-placed Tigers, who the Panthers narrowly defeated 18-16.

"They were the only club who rested their players before the team sheet came out," Kimmorley said.

"They're a very good organisation that are entitled to rest their players and do whatever they want (but) we thought it wasn't respectful.

"My job as a coach is to be a storyteller. I used that (to motivate the players) during the week ... it got us up, which helped us."

But Cleary said his approach to team selection wasn't personal.

"The decision was based on our team, not anyone else's," he said.

"It wouldn't have mattered who we were playing after the third Origin. That was the best time to rest guys. If you rest them during the Origin, physically they might get a rest but mentally they don't."

After suffering two defeats in the Origin period last year, Cleary hatched a selection plan for the representative window well in advance of this encounter.

"This decision goes back to when the draw came out, and you look at the Origin," he said.

Penrith's stand-in co-captain Dylan Edwards told AAP he "disagreed entirely" with the sentiment that Cleary had disrespected the Tigers by resting players.

Edwards pointed out that Penrith's Origin players were in camp for the bye in round 17 so had missed the chance to take a week off like the rest of their club teammates.

"The boys who have played Origin have a really tough period of footy," he said.

"We were fortunate enough to have the bye last week and get a bit of a freshen-up and now it's sort of the same thing (for the Origin players)."