Cooper Cronk knows a thing or two about winning when it matters most and if there is “one guarantee” for him this finals series, it is Nathan Cleary making up for lost time — and in a big way.
Although not everyone is convinced it will all come together that quickly for Cleary, including one Panthers legend.
In case you missed it, Cleary was sent off for an ugly lifting tackle on Dylan Brown and later copped a five-game suspension for it.
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If you ask Panthers premiership-winning hero Scott Sattler, he thinks that Cleary’s timing “might be a little bit out” when he runs out to BlueBet Stadium on Friday night.
“There is no doubt he is working harder than anyone else, but until you get on the field and you have the fire and your face, you need to start adjusting your timing,” he said on ‘The Fox League Podcast’.
“In finals it becomes quicker, so you need to take another couple of steps back so he is going to be a little bit jaded I think early on in the game. He is probably going to have to dust the cobwebs off a little bit early on.”
Sattler has a point and Cleary did take a while to get back into his usual rhythm when returning from injury earlier this year.
Although as Cronk points out there is a key difference this time around. Cleary is suspended, not injured and that means he has had the last five weeks to fine-tune his game.
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“The scary thing for the rest of the competition is he is the type of player sitting at home with every waking minute doing something to get better,” he said on Fox League’s ‘NRL 360’ last month.
“He would be doing all the things he needs to hit the ground running. He’s not someone who’s going to lay on the couch for weeks. I expect him to be one very determined person when he’s back.”
Now, speaking ahead of Penrith’s qualifying final with Parramatta on Friday night, Cronk warned that Cleary will make a “statement” in his first game since the suspension.
“While most teams are trying to find something this time of year, I think he is primed for it,” Cronk said on ‘The Matty Johns Podcast’.
“For five weeks he’s been sitting down taking notes, writing down things to get better and when he walks back into that team, every Penrith player is going to feel a little bit braver, a little bit stronger and a little bit better and confident.
“He’s been plotting, scheming and working out a way to dominate this competition for five weeks. I expect him to make a statement against Parramatta.”
Matty Johns went as far as to predict that this could be Cleary’s finals series, that the Panthers halfback will “dominate” in a way we have not seen before.
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Cleary himself hinted as much when speaking with Channel 9 late last month. Not so much that he would take over the competition but that time away from the field has given the 24-year-old a chance to look at his game — and Penrith’s as a whole — in a different way.
“There are a few things but I don’t want to give too much away because I want to try and implement it in the finals,” he said.
“It’s just trying to find energy in different stages in the game. There are a lot of opportunities you miss when you’re tired and [I am] just trying to stay aware of those.”
Cleary may have been “plotting” and “scheming” his return for the past five weeks but in the first two days after his send-off, he was “replaying” the incident in his mind.
“I felt horrible,” Cleary said on ‘The Sunday Footy Show’ last month.
“It was sort of new ground for me. It was a nightmare… I couldn’t believe what I’d done and it was just instant regret. I felt sorry for Dylan for doing that, felt sorry for my team for letting them down.
“I was sort of filthy at myself for the next two days then I sort of accepted the ban and had to move on.”
Unfortunately for Cleary’s teammates, that meant facing the representative halfback in opposed sessions at training.
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“He just kicks us out of the park,” front rower Spencer Leniu told foxsports.com.au.
“He’s half carving us up half the time, he’s just such a gun,” teammate Mitch Kenny added.
“But he’s the same bloke everyday. He turns up, he’s a pro, he puts in the extras, he’s doing that at the moment just like he was when he was playing and I’m sure he’s gonna be in really good form when he comes back fresh from a little break.”
That is the thing about Cleary — and it was a consistent message from all of his teammates. As much as the send-off may have left him feeling “horrible” and may have lit a fire in the 24-year-old, it is not like he needed that ‘fire’ to “dominate” as Johns is predicting he will.
“Nothing much has changed for Nat and I think that probably speaks volumes of his character because he doesn’t seem any more hungry because he’s so hungry to get better everyday,” Kenny said.
“He’s working so hard everyday, so it’s no different now.”
“We already know what kind of player Clez is,” added winger Brian To’o.
“He’s a team player and obviously takes a lot of pride in the jersey and obviously on how we play as well. He kind of feels like it was his fault but obviously we’ve got his back and whatever the results were, we take it as a team not as individuals.”
There has been one individual running battle at training though, between Cleary and fill-in halfback Sean O’Sullivan — and the soon-to-be Dolphin likes to think he is winning it.
To’o though is not convinced.
“Clez always put it over Sully but I think Sully’s been telling the boys that he put it over Nat,” the representative winger laughed.
“But you never know what happens.”
Cleary may be giving O’Sullivan “facials” during wrestling sessions but when the time comes to get serious, Penrith’s co-captain is locked in and it is bad news for whoever is not on his side of the field.
“He obviously didn’t mean for what happened to happen, I think everyone knows that,” O’Sullivan said of the Brown tackle.
“He was obviously real disappointed with what happened. But he’s kind of moved on from that now and his next job is just to train really well and prepare as best as he can for that first semi, so that’s exactly what he’s doing.
“You know, he’s carving us up in training and he’s itching, ready to go.”
