Call Nathan Cleary overrated all you want, he's still worth every cent

Is Nathan Cleary overrated? Perhaps. But does that mean the Panthers shouldn’t have locked him up long term? Of course not.

Calling Cleary overrated doesn’t mean he isn’t a good player. His ability has been over-exaggerated through no fault of his own.

But that certainly doesn’t make the Panthers’ decision to re-sign him until the end of 2024 a poor one.

When Phil Gould arrived at Penrith in 2011, he was greeted by a financial mess. Despite having the biggest rugby league nursery in the country, there was no long-term direction at the club. It was all about short-term success, and they weren’t experiencing much of that either, having made just one finals series in the six years prior to Gould’s arrival.

At that point, just 20 per cent of Penrith’s playing roster were local juniors. Seven years later, that number stands at 80 per cent, and there have been just four finals appearances along the way.

Cleary is one of Penrith’s most promising products to come through the ranks during Gould’s time at the club. While the 20-year-old isn’t the most spectacular player, it’s the hard work he does in defence that often goes unnoticed. Cleary tops all of the current starting halfbacks in the competition in defence with a tackling efficiency rate of 87 per cent.

(Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

He also ranks the second-best when it comes to the least try-causes and line-break causes, averaging 0.4 per game in both categories.

Like Cleary, young Gold Coast halfback Ashley Taylor secured his future with a contract worth over $1 million dollars a season. While Taylor has plenty of potential with the ball in hand, it is his defence that needs to improve, however, the opposite is true for Penrith’s Cleary.

It was after Cleary’s debut against Melbourne that there was a feeling this kid was going to be something special. Penrith lost the game 24-6 and Cleary didn’t score a try or set one up, nor did he record any line break or line-break assists.

It’s the stuff you typically look at post-game when assessing the performance of playmakers.

What you don’t expect to see is a halfback making 38 tackles in his debut game. But that’s exactly what Cleary did, and he only missed three in the process.

A strong work ethic is something you can’t teach. Fortunately for Penrith, it’s something Cleary proved that he had in just his first game at the top level.

There are areas of his game that Cleary needs to work on – definitely. His vision in attack comes to mind.

While Cleary has shown himself to be more than capable of controlling a contest with his kicking game, he is yet to prove that he has the variety in attack to become an elite playmaker.

The extent of his passing game can at times appear limited to throwing short balls to second rowers, which is more than understandable when you have the rampaging Viliame Kikau as a teammate.

But it’s not like he’s useless. Cleary still possesses one of the most lethal running games in the competition. Better still, he may soon be joined in the halves by boom rookie Jarome Luai.

In Cleary’s absence during the representative period, the 21-year-old inspired Penrith to a 36-4 win over the Warriors, scoring two tries, setting up one and busting 11 tackles. He’s the perfect complement to Cleary, who is more suited to being a game manager and they should form a lethal combination once James Maloney departs.

Yes, Cleary doesn’t have every element of his game perfect. But he is only 20 and it’s completely unrealistic to expect him to be completely flawless.

You only have to look at the path current Roosters halfback Cooper Cronk took to becoming the player he is today.

(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

Both Cleary and Cronk have a similar style of play, with the latter’s game obviously far more developed. One advantage Cronk had in his development was coming through the Melbourne Storm system, where any player can be transformed into the best version of themselves.

As Cronk did, with the right guidance, Cleary will only improve. Despite developing plenty of talent in the past few years, the challenge for Gould and the Panthers has been holding onto them.

Since 2013, 59 players have made played first-grade footy at Penrith. 38 of them have now moved on, either retiring or departing for another club.

They combined to record 1163 games at the foot of the mountains, an average of just 31 per player.

The constant turnover of personnel has been a constant issue for the Panthers.

Since 1967, when they entered the league, Penrith have had 578 players. Just eight of them have played over 200 games for the club, while none have surpassed 250. More recently, it was the loss of captain Matt Moylan that hurt the most.

Having made his club debut in 2013, Moylan was touted as the next face of the Panthers as a brand and after re-signing until the end of the 2021 season, few ever imagined the now 27-year old playing anywhere else.

Yet he left, for a good reason. And so to did local junior Bryce Cartwright. Again, for a good reason.

Regardless, there was a lot of initial confusion from the club’s members and fans that would have turned into anger if Cleary was allowed to walk out the door.

(Photo by Matt Blyth/Getty Images)

He’s already played 58 games for Penrith and is just 20. Now, a lot could happen in the next decade or so, but if Cleary was to stay for another ten years and averaged 20 games per season, he’d crack the 250 mark.

Sure, if the boom halfback wanted to join father Ivan at the Tigers there was little Penrith could do (outside of luring Ivan back of course).

But they simply couldn’t do it again to the club’s loyal fanbase. At just 20 years of age, Cleary is just the kind of player that the Panthers can use to promote themselves, well-mannered and mature beyond his years, there’s nothing remotely unlikeable about the youngster.

And then you have what he has achieved on the field – a series-winning State of Origin halfback, leading the Panthers to three straight finals series and becoming top points scorer for the competition in 2017.

While Cleary wasn’t by any means dominant in the sky-blue jersey, he didn’t need to be. He did his job and showed few bad signs on the big stage.

The argument many have given against signing Cleary on big money is his youth and therefore there’s every risk he could fail to reach any great heights.

Well, why don’t we look at the other side of that argument, where there’s every chance he does become Penrith’s first long-term solution in the halves since Craig Gower.

Sure, Penrith have taken a gamble in offering a 20-year old a five-year deal, but it’s a risk the Panthers needed to take.