The Panthers have reportedly been unhappy with a tackle on Nathan Cleary in Round 24 against the Storm, which aggravated the star halfback’s existing shoulder injury.
It comes amid fears Cleary is “hanging by a thread” ahead of Sunday’s Grand Final after yet again aggravating the same injury last weekend.
Cleary came into this season with a shoulder injury after dislocating it during the summer. It flared up following a tackle made by Melbourne forward Josh King and was forced to spend three weeks on the sideline.
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When asked about how his shoulder felt Cleary said “unfortunately that thing happened against the Storm last time we versed them but worked hard at it again” before reaffirming that it’s good to go for Sunday.
Cleary’s reference to the King tackle raised eyebrows on the NRL 360 panel with Paul Crawley questioning if there was some frustration behind the answer.
“It was an interesting choice of words from Nathan,” Crawley said.
“What got me thinking about this was that last night Michael Chammas from The Sydney Morning Herald — who is a close ally to Penrith and gets good mail — said on Channel 9 that he knows the Panthers privately had thoughts about this tackle.
“When this tackle happened I remember saying to myself — and I’m not saying it’s an illegal manoeuvre — but if you watch it closely Josh King locks his arm around the other arm and gets his knee up.
“I was having a chat to James Graham about this before and it is a wrestling move. It’s not an illegal wrestling move in rugby league, but it’s specifically designed to control the head and slow down the play the ball.
“When (Nathan) pushes off the ground you can see in his eyes that’s where the injury happens.”
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News Corp journalist Dave Riccio agreed with Crawley that the wording from Cleary could have hidden meaning.
“The Panthers are not known for being agitators in the media. They don’t feed lines to journo to be seen as trying to manipulate something that might happen during the week,” he said.
“But I do believe the choice of words from Nathan were interesting. Nathan is not an agitator at all, he plays the game and respectfully treats the opposition.”
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James Graham later joined the NRL 360 panel and explained the intention behind the style of tackle.
“The hand on the wrist is the best position to be in and how the leg comes up, this is all designed to control the head of the opposition player in order to get a slight edge,” he said.
“We know the value of the speed of the play the ball… it’s not intentional to injure the shoulder, it’s to slow the play the ball speed down.”
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Gorden Tallis was quick to shut down any suggestions of wrongdoing by the Storm, saying “this would happen in nearly every NRL game wouldn’t it?”
As did retired prop Aaron Woods.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. I don’t think there should be reports that they’re unhappy about it — it happens in rugby league. That’s part of the game,” he said.
But Crawley had another point to raise about the innocuous tackle — “it shows how vulnerable Nathan can be when put in the wrong situation.”
“We’re not getting to that stage of the season where we bring up the Storm wrestling manoeuvres and try and make it into something it’s not. This is purely to show that Nathan can be vulnerable,” he added.
Riccio agreed and believes the fact Brad Schneider has again been named on the bench suggests Cleary could be one tackle away from being ruled out of the game.
“You can’t get away from the fact that he’s hanging by a thread,” he said.
“Brad Schneider has been named on the interchange bench. Brad Schneider wouldn’t be there if Nathan wasn’t 100 per cent fit. That’s merely cover for their halfback, who as we know is just hanging in there.
“It was pretty innocuous against the Sharks last week and he came off wincing so there’s no doubt he’s hanging by a thread.”
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