Manchester: Kangaroos halfback Nathan Cleary has declared there’s no better place to prove he’s a big-game player than in the World Cup final on Sunday AEDT.
Cleary is one of the best players in the world but has been criticised for not dominating representative games in the same manner he does at Penrith.
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The halfback turned 25 this week and despite having already won almost every trophy in the game, Cleary has faced questions over his ability to step up and dominate big representative games.
Cleary is yet to leave an emphatic mark on this World Cup and was scratchy in Australia’s narrow semi-final win over New Zealand.
It prompted calls for veteran Daly Cherry-Evans, who helped Queensland upset Cleary’s Blues in Origin this year, to replace Cleary for the final against Samoa.
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But Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga will stick firm with the Panthers playmaker, while Cleary acknowledged he needed to improve and said his best football is ahead of him.
“I feel like I do belong and feel like I’ve got a long way to go to play my best footy but I’m doing everything I can to prepare well and try and get my best game out this weekend,” Cleary said.
“The last few games haven’t been my best but I feel like I’ve been building.
“Coming into a new team it’s pretty hard to gel straight away with new combinations, I think it’s been two games we’ve all played together so it’s always going to be a difficult task, but I feel like we’re building.
“In a team like this you don’t need to be the superstar every week and you can just try and unlock other players and gel really well as a team.”
Cleary, who works as hard as anyone and is often his own biggest critic, emphasised he’ll never be owed a Kangaroos jersey and vowed to keep getting better.
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“There’s an internal drive always to try and get the best out of yourself, if it’s not happening you have to work harder and realise where you’re going wrong,” Cleary said.
“That’s always been the case for me, every day I come and try and do my best to try and get the best out of myself and sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t.
“That’s just human nature – you can’t be perfect all the time, you’re not always going to have good days, you’re going to have bad days, it’s about trying to improve and get better.
“The time you think you know everything, you’re going to go backwards because there’s always people evolving and getting better and I know that.
“Something I’ve learnt over time is you’ve got to come in every day and try and be a sponge and learn off people.
“In an environment like this with such great players you’d be stupid not to try and get better and I’ve had that mindset for sure.
“Learning off Mal and people like Cherry and being around Teddy and Munster and Hunt, it’s been an amazing experience for me. I’ve really enjoyed it and will only grow from it.
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“I’m never going to be owed the jersey, I’ve got to always earn it and that comes from each training session and each game, there’s no better stage to do it than the World Cup final.
“I’m very narrow minded by living in the present and living each day as it is and just trying to be a good team member and that’s how you get the best out of yourself on game day.”
Mengina coached legends Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurtson for over decade and he said Cleary is “absolutely” cut from the same cloth.
“Nathan plays a really important role in our team. He’s the halfback and our game manager,” Meninga said.
“He’s been improving all through the tournament and we know that he’ll play his best game on Saturday.
“He’s been great all tour. He turned 25 today and he still wants to learn – he works really hard on his game.
“He puts the time in and the effort in and deserves everything he gets out of the game, because you should get rewarded for effort.”
Meninga also praised the role Cherry-Evans played in Cleary’s development throughout the six-week tour.
“DCE has been excellent and he’s the unlucky one because he deserves to be in this footy team,” Meninga said.
“He’s just done everything right and his unselfishness around the group has just been enormous for the group and for me.
“We’re really appreciative of that and he’s been a model citizen and if you’re talking leadership, he’s the epitome of it in this team.”
