Nathan Cleary had a determined look on his face the moment the game between Penrith and Brisbane kicked off at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
He looked almost angry. His body language was different to what it was the previous week when the game against the Sea Eagles finished in another heavy loss.
That day, Cleary was shaking his head, looking down at the ground with his hands on his hips. He looked defeated but another thing was noticeable at the press conference after the match.
He’d had enough of losing. You could almost hear the anger in his voice.
Like any champion player, Cleary was done kicking stones. He was going to kick some butt instead and inspire his teammates to do the same.
Many pundits were expecting the Broncos to win on Sunday.
I was one of them. What an idiot.
It didn’t take me long to realise that greatness comes in many forms and shows itself in different ways.
Not just in the obvious flash plays either.
Cleary signalled his intent in the16th minute when he kicked the ball downfield, sprinted up the field like he was Usain Bolt and then put a heavy hit on Broncos fullback Selwyn Cobbo, the contact was so hard Cobbo’s head rocked back like he was hit by an express train.
This is not an easy thing to do when the person you tackle is nearly 10kg heavier than you.
Cleary did it anyway and it worked. The Broncos scored after five minutes, but that would be the last try they’d score for the match.
“He’s trying to carry this Panthers side on his back,” said caller Dan Ginnane.
“Nathan Cleary, he’s just looking for the collision,” added co-commentator Michael Ennis.
“He’s in an aggressive state of mind,” exclaimed Matthew Johns in commentary.
They didn’t know the half of it but they could tell ‘greatness’ when they saw it.
For the rest of the game Cleary put on a masterclass, a 40-20 was followed by a deft kick for an Izack Tago try.
Then for good measure and with the game still in the balance, he wound the clock back to the 2023 Grand Final and scored an almost identical try to the one which won Penrith their third consecutive premiership.
Last year he helped the club win its fourth title in a row.
That’s why at age 27 and with his best football still ahead of him, Nathan Cleary is already the greatest player in Panthers history, or as popular culture likes to put it, Cleary is the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) at Penrith.
Of course, the victory against Brisbane will be somewhat diminished if the team doesn’t back it up with another win this weekend.
Cleary knows it, he even told a newspaper reporter as much after the game;
“We knew we had to show up and thankfully we did,” he said.
“In saying that you can’t fall in love with yourselves. We put in a good performance against the Roosters and didn’t back it up.
“So, it’s important we build on this.”
Cleary is also smart enough to know he can’t win a competition or even qualify for the Finals without his teammates, that’s why he said “WE” so many times in the interview.
For there’s no ‘I’ in team but there’s a ‘W’ in ‘win’ and ‘we’.
Every team has a leader.
Penrith is lucky enough to also have a G.O.A.T.
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.