‘Unbelievable’: Panthers reveal ‘nuts’ Cleary reality — and star’s insane 26-game win streak

What is it like to play alongside a rugby league magician like Nathan Cleary when he is at the peak of his powers, like he was in the 46-26 semi-final win over the Bulldogs?

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It’s the question everyone asks when they haven’t had the privilege of playing with some of the greatest players ever to lace up their boots in rugby league.

Are they watching the game in slow motion, while Cleary tears the opposition to pieces almost single-handedly? Does time stand still? Are you caught Cleary-watching in the middle of a game when you are meant to be focused on your own job?

Such questions would have been asked of Knights players regarding Immortal Andrew Johns, Broncos players with Allan Langer, Cowboys players with Johnathan Thurston, Raiders players with Ricky Stuart and Storm players with Cooper Cronk.

It’s because the greatest rugby league players not only have a habit of making the game look easy for them, but also a lot easier for their teammates to play.

Cleary was in total control against the Bulldogs with 45 run metres, two tackle busts, two linebreak assists, a try assist, a try and a club record 18 points in a finals game to lead the Panthers to their sixth straight preliminary final.

And yet he arguably would have done even more if he had to and the game wasn’t over at half-time, with Penrith leading 36-8 on the back a 100 per cent completion rate form 20 sets.

Cleary commanded the ball early in the contest and while he dug deep into the line, the defence barely got a finger nail on him, as he orchestrated perfect play after perfect play for his outside men.

It was no coincidence that six of the team’s eight tries came through Cleary and the space he makes on the outside by straightening the attack on the inside, which allowed Paul Alamoti to pick up a hat-trick and Brian To’o a double, without ever really being challenged by the defence in the corners.

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While the Panthers have some exceptional players, it is difficult to get past the fact that Cleary makes them look better, as all the greats do with the players lucky enough to play with them.

Johns used to turn solid first graders into Origin and international stars during his career with the Knights, while Stuart, Langer, Thurston and Cronk no doubt did the same.

The best asset a rugby league player and team can have in attack is time and Cleary has become an expert on slowing down time for himself and creating more time for his players on the outside to do their job, which inevitably leads to less errors, more tries and more wins.

One Panthers teammate who knows better than most the effect Cleary has on the field is his dummyhalf Mitch Kenny, who has been inside the master halfback for most of the Penrith dynasty.

So does Kenny ever catch himself day dreaming on the field just watching Cleary master the game of rugby league in real time?

“Yes and no, it’s probably not as conscious as that,” Kenny told foxsports.com.au.

“But there’s definitely a bit of that and then sometimes you sit in the sheds and you just go, the stuff he’s doing is just unbelievable.

“But we’ve just come to expect that. It’s just him going about business as usual, which is just nuts.”

So can Kenny and his Panthers teammates tell when another Cleary masterclass is about to be delivered in the lead-up to a match?

“It’s not like I see a little twinkle in his eye or anything in the warm-up,” Kenny said.

“He’s just so consistent in the way he prepares every week, that he gives himself every chance to play like that.

“So that’s the thing about Nathan, the reason he’s so consistently good is because he’s so consistent with what he does in his life.

“So he gives himself a chance to go out like that. He’s human. He’s going to have days where he doesn’t play as well as others. But he’s going to give himself no excuses.

“So he comes into a game and he’s never going to play not as well because he didn’t sleep well or he didn’t eat the right things if you know what I mean, so he gives himself every opportunity to play great and most often he does.”

Two players to reap the benefits of Cleary’s magic on the inside are his wingers Brian To’o and Paul Alamoti, who scored five tries between them against the Bulldogs.

To’o has played his whole first grade career with Cleary and admits nothing shocks him anymore.

“No never,” To’o said when asked if Cleary surprises him.

“Cleary always leads from the front with his actions. Everything he does on the field and off the field is very infectious to us.

“That pretty much shows what a great leader he is and what a great player he is. We’re very lucky to have him.”

Alamoti scored a scintillating hat-trick and ran for 227 metres against the Bulldogs, but he admits it is hard not to get caught Cleary watching at times from the wing.

“I was honestly standing in the middle just in awe of the way he plays,” Alamoti said of Cleary.

“Honestly, the way he plays the game he is just a true competitor. The way he goes about his business, he doesn’t miss a play, he doesn’t miss an inch at all at the moment, but he’s always on, every single play.

“On the wing, I honestly just stand out there just watching him and the way he goes about his business and when he passes me the ball, I want to try and score a try for him.”

Cleary is a master of all conditions, but if you face him on a day game, like the Broncos are about to do on Sunday afternoon, history says you are in for a long day at the office.

The 27-year-old halfback hasn’t lost a day game since 2019, which was the last year the Panthers didn’t make the Grand Final.

“I think I’ve lost about five,” To’o said of Cleary’s 26-game win streak in day games.

“He must be getting a lot of sleep. I don’t know. But I think just with Cleary himself as a player, he pretty much puts himself at the front of our squad and leads from the front, so pretty much his performance will reflect on how we go as well.”

Cleary has become so good that he is inventing new ways to inspire himself to greater heights on the field, like his Samurai try celebration in the semi-final win.

To’o revealed it was him that showed a movie to Cleary, but true to form the master No.7 then went and researched everything he could on the Samurai culture and channelled it on the field.

“Hell no, that was all Cleary, I think we were watching a movie recently, The Last Samurai, so that’s probably something that he took out of it,” To’o said of Cleary’s celebration.

“It’s the first time watching it for him, I showed him the movie though.”

All the talk in the lead-up to the preliminary final has been about Cleary vs Walsh, arguably the two biggest stars in the game right now.

But comparing the two in terms of success is grossly unfair to Walsh.

Yankees baseball legend Reggie Jackson was famously nicknamed Mr. October, for his ability to step up and produce during the MLB finals series and World Series.

Cleary has become the Mr. October of the NRL, having produced some of his best performances when it counts in the NRL finals series and more importantly on the first Sunday of October.

The last time Cleary didn’t play in that October fixture was in 2019 and the last time he didn’t win that game was against the Storm in 2020.

To’o has great respect for Walsh, but it is hard for him to contain the confidence he has from having Cleary in his team on Sunday.

“I think so, it should be a good battle between those two,” To’o said of Cleary and Walsh being the two in form players of the competition.

“They’ve both been in the NRL limelight for quite some time now, so I’m looking forward to seeing them go at it.”

Another things that seems to drive Cleary is disappointment. It is almost like that 2020 loss to the Storm, which ended a 16-match Panthers winning streak, has burned with him ever since.

The last couple of seasons Cleary has come back from the disappointment of mid-season injuries to inspire the Panthers to title after title after title.

This season it was a poor performance by his standards in Queensland’s series clinching third game of the Origin campaign.

Cleary was devastated at the time and admitted it took him longer than usual to get over.

But as the true champions do, he channelled that disappointment into the Panthers’ unlikely charge to the finals and now they are on the brink of a five-peat.

Kenny suspects that Origin series loss added fuel to the fire, but says Cleary would never put his own goals ahead of the teams he plays for.

“That’s probably a question for him, but I know that would obviously mean a lot to him,” Kenny said of Cleary avenging the Origin loss.

“But he certainly seems to have a fire burning in him all the time, so whether or not there’s a bit more of that, I’m not sure.

“But he doesn’t speak about it. He doesn’t make it about him trying to prove it wrong or trying to avenge Origin or anything like that. He just tries to be the best teammate that he can be and we are very thankful for that.”

Cleary’s greatest hits of brilliant performances gets bigger every year.

He has won four premierships from five grand finals, two Clive Churchill Medals, multiple Origin series for the Blues and a World Cup for the Kangaroos.

Some of the players in the Panthers team don’t know what it’s like to lose a premiership in large part because of Cleary.

He led them to a comeback victory over Souths in the 2021 decider to kick off the Panthers dynasty, then led them to a first half blitz of the Eels in 2022, won his second Clive Chrchill medal after single-handedly leading a miracle comeback win over the Broncos in 2023 and kicked the Panthers to victory in a tight win over the Storm in 2024.

So which of Cleary’s masterclasses is Kenny’s favourite to date?

“When he pretty much won us the comp on his own in 2023,” Kenny said.

It was a fair answer, but an even better one would have been what NFL legend Tom Brady said whenever asked what his favourite of Super Bowl win was. “The next one,” was Brady’s reply.

Cleary has that same insatiable appetite for success and his teammates just want to go along for the ride for as long as they can.