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Wests Tigers coach Ivan Cleary should make his teenage son Nathan an offer he cannot refuse to sign with the Wests Tigers when his contract runs out at the Panthers, the club that unceremoniously dumped him when head coach in 2015.
The Panthers believe that they “discovered” young Nathan and have developed him in their system since he was 14, but the fact is that he was really discovered by his father when he was born 20 years ago next November, and has been nurtured by the former “coach of the year” ever since.
If anybody deserves to have the services of the exciting half it is his dad.
Sentiment is only a very small factor when it comes to signing rugby league players, and the coach and the club does not play as big a role as many think it should; if it did, then every player would want to sign with the Storm.
The fact is, the players agent generally is the greatest influence and has enormous power in the negotiations that encompass the price and which club they play with.
Most players have not read Donald Trumps’ The Art of the Deal and are just happy to trust their agent to do the best deal in their interests.
The Panthers did not realise that when they head hunted Ivan Cleary to leave the New Zealand Warriors and coach their NRL team in 2012 that they would also get a hidden gem as a bonus as Ivan arrived at Penrith and signed his 14-year-old son up as a local junior. It did not take long before the “son of a gun” started tongues wagging, and he found himself playing at NRL level by the time he was 18.
The Panthers made what must have been a calculated bet to sack Ivan in 2015 after he had completed the hard yards and cleaned out the “dead wood” as part of the club’s well publicised five-year plan. The risk was always the chance of upsetting young Nathan, but with no NRL jobs available for his dad until he signed with the Wests Tigers for the 2017 season, he re-signed an updated Panthers contract with the promise to play NRL in 2016.
Nathan had a stunning rookie season and 2017 has been even better, in fact it has been that good that the Panthers have been forced to start working on yet another contract; this time for five years.
The vultures are circling and the wolfs are barking; this is a nervous time for the Panthers as they scurry to secure their champion young half back long term as he is being compared to club legend ‘Brandy’ Alexander.
News Limited reported that “Penrith have started negotiations with Nathan Cleary over a massive five-year $3 million contract extension to keep him at the club until 2024.”
Paul Kent said on NRL 360: “I think its unders”.
$3 million over five years is $600,000 a year which is astonishing money for a teenager still eating Weetbix with his mum and dad.
The fact is quality young halfbacks in NSW are as scarce as a Panther drinking from the Nepean, and Nathan Cleary happens to also be an 85 per cent goal kicker and looks destined to be the highest points scorer in the NRL this season and may be the youngest ever to hit the 200 points mark in a single year.
Kenty is correct, it’s unders. In fact, it is gross unders.
Even though Ivan Cleary has every right to want to exact some revenge on the club that kicked him out, he is passive by nature and just got on with life as his son progressed at his old club without him.
That said, Ivan is an experienced NRL coach who will know exactly what a future Origin half is worth on the market, and will also know that the Panthers will consider they should deserve to be on the low end of market value as they developed Nathan.
There is no doubt that Ivan should have a crack at signing his son, but to protect both father and son from any “insider trading” innuendo, someone at the Wests Tigers needs to assume ‘The Art of the Deal’.
The deal should be straight out of Donald Trump’s top drawer and by offering “market value” young Nathan should switch from a Panther to a Tiger.
Market value for an organising goal kicking half who is close to playing for the NSW Blues is $1m.
The ‘art’ in the deal should be over ten years and be worth $10m.
That’s what the Donald would do.
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