Since his debut in 2016, Nathan Cleary has played 79 games for the Panthers.
His stats in 2019 were very average. He played 21 games for eight wins, ten tries, 157 points, 4,580 kick metres and 18 forced drop outs – which is the second-best in his career – nine try assists which is also second and a total running metres of 1,880.
Does that mean Cleary is establishing himself as one of the better halves in the game? No, that’s because he had a five-eighth who he shared the ball-playing role with in James Maloney.
Cleary’s running game will change slightly now that Maloney has left the club and will take a lot more of the kicking duties with a running five-eighth in Jarome Luai.
In 2017 Nathan Cleary was the top point scorer with 228 points, was the youngest player ever (19) to get the award in over a century and became the youngest person to score 200 points in a season.
In 2018 he made his Origin debut alongside Maloney in a 2-1 series win over Queensland. Cleary played all three games, scored four points, made 734 total kicking metres, got one forced drop out and 149 total running metres compared to 2019 where he played two games, scored ten points, made 435 total kicking metres and 86 total running metres.
The two stats which don’t look good for Cleary in Origin are his try assists (0) and forced drop outs (1).
With Panthers failing to fire in 2019 after coming tenth with 11 wins and 13 losses along with having their lowest total of points (413) since 2015 (399). They also had their lowest number of tries (67) in the last decade.
With the losses of Waqa Blake, Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Tyrell Fuimaono, James Maloney, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Dylan Edwards for at least three games, Cleary’s kicking game will be very important.
He will need to be a leader for the Panthers. His combinations with new recruit Api Koroisau at dummy-half and five-eighth Luai will have to be synchronised to perfection.
Cleary will be the most important man for the Panthers in 2020. If selected for Origin, Cleary will need to improve his stats if the Blues are to have any success.
Whoever partners him in the halves will also be very important for how he plays because the Blues need to pick a five-eighth who is mainly a runner of the ball like Jack Wighton, Mitchell Moses or Luke Keary.
Each of them can really improve Cleary’s game at Origin level and build a solid halves combination for the next 5-10 years.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Lets compare his career to that of Cronk and Thurston at age 22.
Andrew
Guest
I agree on Ivan. For Nathan's sake, I hope Baz has more influence on his game than Ivan does this year. With Nathan putting on a reported 4-5kg's in the off season, he is looking more like Barrett did who was a strong, running half. I think Nathan potentially is a smarter player than Trent was with better touch plays. But if he learns and applies anything this year, it will be from Barrett, not Ivan Cleary.
The Barry
Roar Guru
These are Cleary’s season rankings the last two years in some key halfback stats. In 2018 Cleary player 17 games against 21 last year These aren’t the numbers for a locked in NSW half. The line engagements is an interesting one. He was taking the ball to the line far more frequently, but not seeming to do much more with it. I wonder if this was Ivan trying to get him steering the team around the park? Tried to find Cleary’s stats without Maloney in the team but short of wading through every game and compiling the stats couldn’t find it anywhere 2019 Line Engagements 4th (Maloney 6th) Try Assists 33rd (Maloney was 6th) Linebreak Assists 34th (Maloney was 27th) Kick Metres 21st (Maloney was 13th) No 40/20s (Maloney 2nd) 2018 Line Engagements 27th (Maloney 3rd) Try Assists 33rd (Maloney 26th) Linebreak Assists 26th (Maloney 19th) Kick Metres 17th (Cleary 10) 40/20s - 1 each
Anton Taylor
Roar Guru
100% agree with you Paul, Nathan should ignore discussion about origin and focus on getting the panthers to finals.
soapit
Roar Guru
to me youve named three halves that you could easily find a pairing from thatd be better than any involving cleary
Insider
Roar Rookie
Trent and Ivan, well I don’t rate Ivan as a head coach, Hook was far superior! I do believe Ivan has assistant value but not at the top. Trent well can’t stand him, didn’t rate him as a player and I certainly don’t rate him as a coach, I wouldn’t have him anywhere near a footy side, his death throws at Manly were amateur and immature good riddance Nathan needs a Bellamy, Robbo or Des
Nat
Roar Guru
Either Burton or Laui could be a good foil for Cleary, he can't do it on his own. The forwards have to their job to give him space as well. I'm not sure Cleary is great, just very good with a cracking boot.
Paul
Roar Guru
I hope for the Panthers sake, Ivan can actually coach some improvement into Nathan. I don't hold out much hope as I don't think Ivan's a good coach. As this article suggests, Nathan will be key to the Panthers chances this year and no Maloney will place huge pressure on him to manage the attack around the park. He should also ignore any discussion about SOO and simply focus on managing his Cub team. If he's chosen as half-back for the Blues, so be it, but he really needs to concentrate on what should be his first priority, getting the Panthers into the finals.
Max power
Guest
Training? Got a game next week