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Opinion
It’s hard to call 2021 a breakout year for Nathan Cleary. It had become pretty clear what the Penrith halfback was capable of, but the silverware he secured last season was about as significant as it gets.
Winning the grand final, Clive Churchill Medal, a State of Origin series and the Dally M Halfback of the Year award is a fair reflection of just how strong Cleary was in 2021 – a year of which he missed a significant portion through injury.
There’s actually been a school of thought that Cleary has been stiff to miss out on the Dally M for best player in the whole shebang the last couple of years, which is a reasonable debate to have, even if I don’t subscribe to the theory – and certainly not last year, when Tom Trbojevic was so dominant over a season in which he played even fewer regular-season matches than Cleary.
What I would note however is that Cleary is now in a team of superstars. Isaah Yeo, James Fisher-Harris and Brian To’o are in the conversation for being the best players in the world in their respective positions, Stephen Crichton, Viliame Kikau and Liam Martin are all in the elite category, and the much-maligned Dylan Edwards ran for 344 metres against Manly on Thursday night (more than double Tommy Turbo’s 157).
Apisai Koroisau is the incumbent NSW hooker (even if, according to Andrew Johns, he may no longer be eligible to play for the Blues), while Jarome Luai is stringing together performances that suggest Penrith will struggle to keep him when his contract is up, because clubs will make him seven-figure offers to be their main man.
Yet among all that starpower, Cleary shines brightest and is, deservedly, the club’s highest-paid player.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Hell, Penrith have been so sure of what they have in Cleary that they made his dad the coach.
I’m not even being flippant with that remark. Ivan Cleary obviously now has the ring to show he’s the right man for the job, but do you honestly believe the Panthers would have paid out the Wests Tigers so they could re-hire the coach they had sacked barely three years earlier – on a monster contract of his own, no less – unless his son was the star and future of the team?
Whatever, the Panthers have been proven right to do so and the crowds they’re packing in at their stadium, which is set to be rebuilt largely on the basis of the rugby league dynasty underway on the banks of the Nepean, more than justify the cost of reuniting the Clearys.
I don’t want to say what’s happening in Penrith is impossible without Nathan there – particularly after Sean O’Sullivan’s absolute barnburner for the Panthers last Thursday, playing No.7 as cover for the injured Cleary – but he’s so important to their success.
Perhaps the best illustration of how critical Cleary is was the Sydney Morning Herald’s 2022 coaches’ poll, in which 56 per cent of responding coaches said that if they were starting up a new NRL club, Cleary is the first player they would sign.
(A quick aside: that poll was more than a little deceptive, calling itself the “coaches’ poll”, when only ten of the NRL’s 16 head coaches responded to the questions asked – and even then, the ‘ten’ involved picked and chose which questions they responded to, with only nine coaches answering the above question. Still, I’d call it an accurate indication of Cleary’s value.)
He has the best kicking game in the NRL, has elite organisation skills, runs and passes with aplomb, and has ice running through his veins.
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
His reputation for being a strong defensive half is not yet justified, although I suspect his missed-tackle tally has been inflated by his toughness, playing on when he wasn’t at 100 per cent fitness and thus was targeted by opposition, much like we saw Souths do in the 2021 grand final.
I must admit, I was among those who questioned Cleary winning the Clive Churchill against the Bunnies, given he missed nine tackles for the game.
But the flip side of that was how important his pinpoint kicking game was to the result – it far outweighed his questionable defence and, again, it was only suspect because his shoulder was essentially held in place with sticky tape.
His only real flaw are some questionable lapses of judgement off the field, but his errors have been those of a young man finding his way while squinting into the glare of the media spotlight, rather than criminal acts or other misdemeanours that leave you questioning his character.
Terrible tat aside – Nathan, that’s waaaay too big a panther to have inked permanently on your body, especially considering they’re really just your employers at the end of the day – the 24-year-old seems to be making better choices off the field and that should only serve to increase his consistency and dominance when he crosses the white line.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Best-case scenario
It’s hard to see how it can get any better than last year for Cleary or Penrith, although a better bill of health for the young star would be a big tick.
A successful return for Round 4 and Cleary playing through the rest of the year without further time on the sidelines in a cast, sling or moonboot would certainly help the Panthers’ cause in winning the minor premiership and grand final, as well as Cleary taking out the Dally M Award, confirming his status as the best player in the game.
Put all that together and Cleary would surely earn his first Kangaroos cap – how wild is it that Nathan Cleary has played for the winning Blues in three of the past four Origin series but is yet to get a run for Australia? – and from there probably steer his country to World Cup glory at season’s end.
A year like that would be up there with Cameron Smith’s 2017 as one of the greatest in rugby league history.
And it’s entirely plausible that Nathan Cleary will do it all.
Million Dollar Man series
A look at each club’s million-dollar man – the player broadly acknowledged to be taking up the largest individual chunk of the salary cap (even if they aren’t actually quite grossing seven figures).
» Can Tevita Pangai Jr finally put it all together at the Bulldogs?
» An off year or the beginning of the end for Jason Taumalolo?
» Scorned by Souths, it’s Reynolds to the rescue in Brisbane
» How much blame does Luke Brooks deserve for the Wests Tigers’ finals drought?
» Addin Fonua-Blake took the green but can he stop seeing red?
» Ben Hunt and how a single moment can define an entire career
» Jack Wighton wins awards but can he win a comp?
» Andrew Fifita’s busted knees, induced coma and $100K per game
» David Fifita, the richest benchwarmer in NRL history
» Is Kalyn Ponga red and blue, Redcliffe or misread?
» Mitchell Moses and Sterlo’s curse
» How much can a Teddy bear?
» The cake, not the Cherry on to
» Latrell Mitchell needs a cooler head – and to stop attacking other players’
Worst-case scenario
The reality of the salary cap is that successful teams don’t stay together and we’re starting to see some significant pieces move on from this Penrith squad.
Matt Burton, Kurt Capewell, Paul Momirovski and Tyrone May are all missing from last year’s grand final 17, while extended squad members Brent Naden and Tevita Pangai Jr have also moved on.
Their Round 1 performance shows that Penrith’s best 17 will still be right up there with the best of them, but over a long, hard NRL season – especially when you, as the reigning premiers, are the hunted every week – squad depth is so important.
For the last few years, the Pennies’ depth has been among the best because they were getting such great value from so many players – players who are now getting paid what they’re worth to go somewhere else or staying at Penrith and therefore squeezing the cap a little tighter, forcing other guys to go elsewhere.
Look, it is what it is. But it also means Penrith’s season will be even more difficult than the last two years.
I can’t see them dropping out of the top four – like I said of the Roosters, this side’s floor is higher than a lot of other clubs’ ceilings.
But a bad season could come about as a result of their two years on top finally start to catch up with the Panthers, resulting in them bowing out before this year’s GF and possibly costing Nathan his starting place in the Australian side.
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