Mary Fowler has changed Nathan Cleary. That could be bad news for the rest of the NRL

“She’s still learning about the game – she never watched footy. The only player she knew was [North Queensland legend] Johnathan Thurston.

“She makes me happy, and that definitely helps – she’s super supportive, and that’s what I love about her.”

Psychologists will tell you when professional sportspeople are happy off the field there is a direct link to improved playing performances.

Top Sydney sports psychologist Paul Penna, who has worked with NRL clubs, the Australian Olympic team and more recently the GWS Giants in the AFL, said: “When an athlete is in a healthy relationship, it helps them maintain perspective about what is important in life.

“They realise relationships and connection are way more important than getting a premiership ring and lifting a trophy.

“Mary would not only give Nathan support, but also a distraction and outlet from football. Whether he has a good game or bad game, or good or bad training session, he can jump on the phone and be happy with her.

“When you talk about him FaceTiming Mary after the game, that’s perspective. That’s Mary being Nathan’s anchor. That’s awesome.

“With Mary also being a professional, she knows exactly what kind of relationship she has signed up for.”

When you suggest to Cleary that life can’t get much better, he says: “It could. Nothing is ever perfect.

“You’re constantly in pursuit of happiness – I don’t know what that actually means.

“But the feeling I have is if everything is going well off the field, you usually play pretty well on it. And I definitely feel like that at the moment.

“I’m very grateful for the spot I’m in, the relationships I have around me, not just with Mary, but with my family, friends and teammates.

“I want to keep moving forward while I can, and while I’m capable of doing it. When I’m retired, and old, and with grandkids, I can talk about the glory days then.

“I sometimes think about the future and what it will look like.

“Mary is good at foreseeing the future, and how she wants to plan it out. I’m the opposite, I don’t want to look into the future too much; I’m enjoying life right now.”

There is a lot of love at the Panthers, with Dylan Edwards and Luke Garner marrying their respective partners in the off-season, and Liam Martin and Liam Henry popping the question to their girlfriends.

Fowler attended several NRL games last year, but Cleary’s good friend and co-captain Isaah Yeo was one person still yet to meet her.

“I don’t talk to Nath about Mary to be fair, but I read all the articles; they’re the articles that rate the most, so they must be doing something right,” he says with a laugh.

For all the good times, Cleary knows he has to remember and learn from the times when things weren’t so good. And he doesn’t need to look too far.

Nathan’s father, Penrith coach Ivan Cleary, released a book late last year, Not Everything Counts But Everything Matters, which addressed his forgettable return to the Panthers in 2019 and his subsequent mental health struggles.

Nathan referenced a loss to the New Zealand Warriors when he wrote the book’s afterword.

“We lost against the Warriors, and I was pretty much in tears,” Nathan wrote. “I looked at him [Ivan], and he looked back at me with a blank face I’d never seen before. It was a tough moment for our team and our family.”

When you ask Cleary to expand on that night, a 30-10 loss on a Friday evening in front of a poor Penrith crowd, he says: “That season shaped me into who I am today. I will never forget that, or take it for granted.

“We’d lost seven in a row. That night was the tipping point. I didn’t play well. I hadn’t played well at the start of that year.

“Sometimes you need difficult moments to shape you and propel you towards greater things. The 2020 grand final loss was no different.

“All it does is make it more special and more fond of the feelings you have now when you do come out the other side.

“Winning definitely helps in life. You don’t want it to be the be all and end all, and let it dictate your mood for the week, but it plays a significant role.

“It comes back to preparation and working hard, and if you’ve done that, you get to game day and feel free because you know you’ve done everything you can and have no regrets, and no excuses.

“If it doesn’t go your way, and sometimes it doesn’t, that’s rugby league. [Defeat] becomes easier to accept, and you move on quicker.”

Plenty of players have departed Penrith at the end of each premiership season, but the club continues to deliver.

Jarome Luai’s big-money move to the Wests Tigers will be the departure that impacts Cleary the most. Since 2020, Luai’s breakout year, Cleary ran out without his five-eighth partner just five times. More often than not, it has been Luai holding the fort in Cleary’s absence.

Knowing Luai is no longer around makes Cleary even more determined to avoid injury and remain on the park in 2025. Blaize Talagi, Jack Cole, Daine Laurie and Trent Toelau are all candidates to take Luai’s No.6 jersey.

Cleary and the Panthers were meant to take part in an opposed session against North Sydney on Saturday, but had to rely on their extended squad when the Melbourne Storm poached a few senior Bears for their own hit-out. The halfback enjoyed some valuable minutes.

Off-season shoulder surgery will not stop him lining up against Cronulla in the season opener in the US. Manchester City travel to Tottenham that same weekend in the Women’s Super League, so Fowler won’t be able to watch her man in action in person. At least there is FaceTime.