For a man who rarely raises an eyebrow, let alone his voice, Ivan Cleary’s simple summation of Liam Martin’s critical grand final try said it all.
“I loved the try just before half-time that Romey [Jarome Luai] and Nath [Cleary] dreamed up,” Cleary snr said. “Marto timed his run perfectly off that on a play that I don’t think we’ve ever done in a game.”
Cleary was chuffed. Martin’s try against the gallant Melbourne defence capped a tactical dismantling of the minor premiers with the flair and flavour of Penrith’s prize-winning halves. And with a mix of the instinctive and the strategic, we marvel once more at the greatest side of the modern era.
‘Lucky Romey could hear me, because Mitch didn’t’
Andrew Johns mentioned it more than once in commentary – the partnership between Cleary and Luai ranks as “the greatest halves combination the game has seen. Look at the record.”
The “record” reads as 78 wins from 89 games together (win percentage of 87.6), with four premierships to boot, and a combination honed over more than a decade delivered Martin’s telling try right on half-time.
Any other side would have wilted against Penrith’s 57 per cent share of possession, but Melbourne’s desperate defence kept them clinging to a two-point lead, until hooker Mitch Kenny went left, and Luai and Cleary promptly decided to swing right.
“It wasn’t a planned play,” Cleary confirmed. “I wanted [the ball] but Mitch went to Romey and I don’t think he could hear me. Lucky Romey could – he threw it back and we continued the play we were going to do anyway.”
Luai’s left-foot step has regularly seen him swinging play back left to the right over the years, and the Tigers-bound star has rarely been one to die wondering.
But flinging a pass 15 metres back across the ruck to a stationary man, with a grand final in the balance, and after the Storm had turned away plenty of conventional attacking raids, takes another kind of cajones entirely, before Cleary and Martin do the rest.
A prize pair: Jarome Luai and Nathan Cleary celebrate their fourth grand final win.Credit: Getty Images
“I didn’t see too much on my side. I knew straight away [I should] get it to the guy who wants it, the best player in our game,” Luai said.
“I think in big games some players can go into their shell and don’t really play what they see to an extent. But the experience we have, we’re not afraid to play what we see.”
Immortal combat: The Sharks’ Smith treatment revisited
That was the art. Now for the science. The last time before this that Melbourne lost a grand final, their captain and arguably most influential player, Cameron Smith, made 73 tackles, easily the most of any player in the game. On Sunday night, Melbourne’s captain and arguably their most influential player had to make more tackles than any other game this season.
It wasn’t quite the exact blueprint Shane Flanagan’s Sharks used to blunt Smith in the 2016 decider, but Cleary’s masterpiece reached the same ends anyway.
Harry Grant was forced to empty the tank with 59 tackles, and despite scoring his side’s only try, had one of his lowest running metres (49) tallies all year. He made 11 more tackles than any other teammate (Eli Katoa and Trent Loiero had 48 each).
When the Storm desperately needed a spark from dummy half in the final quarter, who could blame Grant for struggling to pick his feet up?
Making Melbourne work
Grant wasn’t on his lonesome in Penrith’s sights, with their entire pack run off their feet by the Panthers repeated inside balls. It’s been a favoured Ivan Cleary tactic, particularly against the Roosters’ big bodies in recent years.
With Melbourne missing Nelson Asofa-Solomona’s punch and quick play-the-balls, running the Storm’s forwards into the ground exposed their missing firepower even more so once fatigue set in.
Even late in the game when presented with a scrum in the Storm’s half, Penrith lined up six men on their open side, and promptly turned Scott Sorensen back inside at Grant.
Four more ball-runners cutting back towards the ruck followed in that set, with Isaah Yeo especially making 10 to 15 metres per run to truly take the game away from the visitors.
The running man: How Cleary and Luai shook things up
And back to the art. With Penrith’s endless inside balls making Melbourne work overtime, Cleary especially went to work. The NRL website credits him with an eye-watering 29 runs for 212 metres – with the governing body deeming any step taken forward with the ball as a run at the line.
In short, Cleary did so more than ever before. The sight of him popping up on Luai’s edge caught Johns’ attention – “it’s a rare sight, Nathan Cleary on the left-hand side of the field” – and spoke to the latest and last evolution at the Panthers’ scrum base.
“It helped me grow a lot when Nath trusted what he saw with me playing in [a traditional halfback role,” Luai said of his added responsibilities while Cleary was injured this year.
“It was awesome how we’ve evolved our game. He’s been coming to the left side as a [five-eighth]. It’s giving the defence different shapes to deal with, and that’s what we’ve come up with.”
Cleary himself pointed to the grand final’s incredible pace and fatigued forwards offering more chances to run, which in turn brought Luai into the game for Penrith’s opening try.
The set play with Cleary at first-receiver draws Melbourne’s attention, particularly with noted hole-runner Sorensen looming opposite Jahrome Hughes.
Luai’s wrapping around the back on a 45-degree angle creates the extra man as Paul Alamoti nails his popped pass, and Sunia Turuva does the rest.
Kick and catch: Nullifying the Storm flyers
In Cleary’s own words, the only team who has really been able to do damage against Penrith’s metre-eating back three with high kicks this year has been Melbourne.
During their late season match at BlueBet Stadium, the Storm scored twice through Eli Katoa from Will Warbrick contesting high kicks and deflecting them to waiting teammates.
The Panthers were trying to beat the former rugby sevens star in the air, but couldn’t. Melbourne won by two points.
“Last plays were going to be crucial [in the grand final],” Cleary said. “They always are in big games. The Storm, in particular, are very good at them.”
But on the big stage, the Panthers came with another plan to combat the Storm’s perceived aerial superiority: allow Melbourne’s tall timber to catch their attacking kicks, and then smother them straight away.
Before six minutes had passed, Jahrome Hughes launched a kick into the night sky and the Panthers just waited for Xavier Coates to catch it.
When he did, Brian To’o and Izack Tago enveloped him, then Nathan Cleary and Dylan Edwards joined in.
He didn’t have time to do anything once he caught the ball, and Martin ensured it was the same when Melbourne fielded Cleary’s own aerial raids.
And so it went, the Storm never looking likely in the air. And Penrith, with their own blend of the strategic and the spontaneous, always looked good for yet another premiership triumph.
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