‘Not sure what he’s meant to do’: Cleary’s issue with Leota penalty as Ivan praises ‘smart’ Grant

Ivan Cleary preferred praise Harry Grant, but son Nathan was still burning about the penalty that denied his match winning field goal in the Storm’s 22-18 golden point win over the Panthers.

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Cleary slotted a field goal in the 78th minute that would have seen his side win 19-18, but Grant played for a penalty by running into Moses Leota, who was in an illegal blocking position.

Ashley Klein and the Bunker both ruled Leota had to be penalised under NRL rules, but it was a bitter pill for Cleary junior to swallow in his post match press conference.

The reporter first asked Cleary what he made of the crucial penalty that allowed Grant to go on and score the match winning try in golden point

“Harry’s too smart at both ends, that’s pretty much it,” Cleary senior said.

“Nathan how did you see it?” the reporter asked.

“Tell the truth,” Cleary senior said.

Cleary junior was visibly trying not to be salty, but couldn’t hide his disappointment in the decision.

“If that was in the field of play and you run a block shape, it wouldn’t be an obstruction because they ruled that out,” Cleary junior said.

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“If you’re defending a three-man and you play for the obstruction, then they don’t want that in the game, but for some reason, it’s different for a field goal.

“I thought the blocking rule was brought in, so then people wouldn’t stand next to the play-the-ball. Moses wasn’t in that position.

“I don’t believe that everyone can get behind me on that field goal. And then essentially Harry played for it because he knew he was going to get the penalty.

“But I don’t think Moses moved at all either, so it was a pretty frustrating.”

The Panthers are some of the best exponents of the field goal in the game and it is something they rarely get wrong.

However, Cleary believes this situation was unique in that it came off a linebreak, which made it hard for Leota to get out of the way.

“It was a bit different because it’s sort of happened straight off a line break, so I just went into position,” Cleary explained.

“It wasn’t your sort of standard field goal. I think that’s what sort of makes it harder as well.

“It’s after a linebreak, so Moses is there to take the next run. And then I’m not sure what he’s meant to do. Like, I know that’s a common cliche, but is he meant to then run through?

“But then if he runs through, he’s a chance of taking people out. Do we expect him to get all the way behind the ball and then we’ve got no one to run it?

“So I don’t know. I feel like it’s a split second thing where I’m then calling, I want the ball to take the field goal. And Moses is there to take a run. And he didn’t move. So I don’t know. “It’s pretty frustrating. But at the end of the day, we did enough bad things to ourselves and lost that game.

“And refs calls, they go on your side sometimes and sometimes they’re not, so we lost that game ourselves.”

However, Grant believes he was only acting within the rules of the game as they currently stand.

“I think anyone in the game has seen that that’s been policed numerous times and that’s the rules in the game,” Grant said.

“Even the opposition boys, they were aware of it in the game and when it happened. If that’s the rules we stick to it, if we want to change it come out during the week and change it.

“But I think anyone would agree that that’s been policed numerous times throughout the year and hats off to the officials for policing it the same way.

“I think there’s been numerous ocassions throughout the year where it’s been awarded a penalty.

“There’s probably some inconsistencies or confusion around it sometimes, but so long as that’s the rule, it’s black and white, take that forward.

“Even the players throughout on the field knew that they weren’t allowed to be in that position.

“We all train for that, we all know the circumstances, we all know scenarios… everyone knows you’re not allowed to be in that position and that’s a hard one for sure but that’s just what’s been policed throughout the season.”