It was one of those moments, Penrith had just levelled the scores 26-all with the Dolphins last Sunday. It was extra time and Penrith were 43 metres out and Nathan Cleary was positioned slightly to the right.
No one expected him to kick a field goal from there. Not even his teammates as they were about to make their run down field. The Dolphins’ defence came up, but they didn’t rush him. In that moment Cleary saw an opportunity and he took it.
As the ball sailed through the air every Panthers supporter held their breath. Then the crowd went nuts as they saw the ball go over the crossbar.
Two-point field goal – game, set and match.
Cometh the hour, Cometh the man.
Cleary was back and so were Penrith in a game they had no right to win, missing five Origin players and down 14 points early in the second half.
This is what makes Cleary the best player in the world. Remember he had been out for 10 weeks and instead of easing his way back in, he went full tilt. The Dolphins came out firing and set a blistering pace throughout the match.
They ran at Cleary every opportunity they had in an effort to tire him out and put him off his game.
It almost worked . . . almost.
It took one moment and the ‘Ice Man’ was back. Back in the winner’s circle, back in the headlines.
During his 10-week absence the media were already picking new halfbacks to promote as the greatest in the game.
Jahrome Hughes was hailed as the best half in the comp, Mitchell Moses was the hero of NSW and then the headlines began. Does NSW even need Nathan Cleary anymore?
Not degrading those two amazing players in any way but it’s easy to make such statements when the best player and halfback in the game is sitting on the sidelines not playing.
‘Out of sight out, out of mind’ is the expression isn’t it?
Cleary didn’t have the perfect game by any stretch. He looked out of sync on more than one occasion, especially at the start of the game. Hell, even his father said he looked “rusty”.
However the rust seemed to fall away the longer the game went and by the end, Cleary was polished and shiny once more.
Four try conversions, two try assists, a penalty goal to tie the game, and then a clutch two-point field goal to win the match.
All in a day’s work, really.
There’s no doubt that there’s plenty of improvement left in Cleary’s game over the next seven weeks. More importantly he showed no ill effects from the hamstring injury which kept him off the field for so long.
He’ll reunite with his regular halves partner Jarome Luai this weekend for ‘one last ride’ together. Once the two click again the Panthers will be difficult to stop.
It’s hard to measure the importance of Cleary to the side, well no, that’s a lie, it isn’t really. If ‘Clez’ isn’t in the team, I don’t think Penrith can win a fourth consecutive premiership.
You can have Jahrome Hughes, you can have Mitchell Moses.
I’ll take Nathan Cleary every day of the week… and twice on Sunday!
Peter Lang
Peter Lang is an experienced sports writer, who has been covering rugby league for several decades. He first wrote Lang on League for the Weekender in the 1990s, and worked for Panthers on its famous Panthers Magazine for several years.