Sitting down in entrance of the media after Sunday’s grand ultimate, even the architect of Penrith’s gorgeous 26-24 comeback win regarded misplaced for phrases — as if Nathan Cleary himself couldn’t fairly comprehend what he and his teammates simply did.
“Just sitting here, it’s slowly sinking in,” the Panthers halfback and now two-time Clive Churchill medallist informed reporters.
“It’s honestly a whirlwind right now. It’s pretty crazy. I don’t have the words to describe it.”
Cleary’s teammates had loads of phrases to explain what he did although.
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“The GOAT,” second rower Scott Sorensen informed foxsports.com.au and he wasn’t the one one to say it.
“You would have got that a million times,” laughed Luke Garner.
“He’s the man,” added entrance rower Moses Leota.
One phrase, in the meantime, wasn’t sufficient for five-eighth Jack Cogger.
“I probably can’t do it in one word,” he stated.
“Big moments, big plays. Nathan Cleary.”
Big moments like that 40-20 kick with the Panthers trailing 24-14, having already made a linebreak solely minutes earlier to place Moses Leota over for a strive.
Big performs like when Cleary stepped by a number of defenders to attain the go-ahead strive that will find yourself securing Penrith’s place within the historical past books.
“No, I haven’t actually,” an sincere Ivan Cleary stated when requested if he had ever seen a sport prefer it from Nathan.
“I can’t even remember the last time we had to come back and win. The 2020 grand final actually comes to mind. We kind of ran out of time that night, we didn’t get it together quick enough.”
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Cleary scored the final strive in that sport too, just for the Panthers to fall brief 26-20.
But it was from that heartbreak in his first shot at premiership glory that Cleary stated he realized methods to higher cope with moments just like the one Penrith discovered itself in on Sunday, trailing 24-8 and seemingly getting ready to being put away.
“I think the 20 minutes [after halftime] was close to the worst I had ever played,” the 25-year-old stated.
“It was nice to finish on a high. I think my experience from the past with the 2020 grand final helped me to be in the game at the end of this one. Sometimes things seem s*** at the time, like it did in that 2020 game, but I think it’s made me who I am today.”
Ivan himself admitted son Nathan didn’t have his “best moments” within the begin of the second half however trying as much as the large display, the Panthers coach noticed a cause to consider when few different folks did.
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“I did see his face on the big screen after a try when he was coming back for a kick-off,” he stated.
“I did think to myself he actually looked really clear. If you look at the 2020 grand final it wasn’t, so I thought, ‘At least that’s good news’.
“I didn’t think what was going to happen after that though. I think that explains the lessons he’s learned gave him the clarity to go, ‘OK, now it’s backs to the wall. Now I’m going to go after it’.”
And go after it Cleary did, having a hand in all three of Penrith’s tries because the defending premiers roared house to interrupt Brisbane’s hearts and make historical past within the course of.
What made Cleary’s efficiency notably spectacular although was the very fact two of these tries got here with halves accomplice Jarome Luai and skipper Isaah Yeo on the sphere.
Like Yeo, Sorensen had additionally been pressured off for a head harm evaluation take a look at shortly after Ezra Mam raced away for his third attempt to put Brisbane forward 24-8.
By the time he had handed his take a look at and was again on the sphere it was 24-20.
“I was just thinking, ‘What’s going on?’,” Sorensen stated.
“I don’t mean to be cocky or anything like that but I was just kind of like, ‘It doesn’t surprise me’. The strength of this group, the resilience of this group, the bravery of this group and then Nathan — what do I need to say? He’s the best.”
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It definitely made fill-in five-eighth Cogger’s life loads simpler, with the soon-to-be Knights playmaker telling foxsports.com.au he had the “best seat in the house”.
“Unbelievable,” Cogger stated.
“I had the best seat in the house to see him do his thing at the end setting up a couple of tries, kicking a pretty massive 40-20 and then scoring the winner.”
But whereas a lot of the rugby league world was in shock witnessing Cleary mastermind the best grand ultimate comeback in NRL historical past, the other was true for his teammates.
For them it wasn’t arduous to consider. After all, they’d seen it earlier than — solely it wasn’t in entrance of over 80,000 screaming followers on rugby league’s largest stage.
In reality, typically it’s when nobody is watching. The “stuff he does in the dark that no one sees”, as Leota put it, when he would have each cause and each excuse to ease up.
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“It’s unbelievable,” Sorensen stated.
“The amount of time and work he puts in. Everyone just goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, of course he does’. But it’s honestly endless.”
“It [his performance] doesn’t surprise me with the stuff the guy does at both training and in games, I’m starting to get used to it,” added Garner, who joined the Panthers this yr.
“He works his backside off. He’s always the last one on the field, last one at the gym, last one at training. Just working really hard on his game.
“He’s still a student of the game. He’s learning and improving out of sight every time he plays. He does the simple stuff really well.”
“It’s just process,” Izack Tago stated.
“He doesn’t skip a step. He never focuses on outcomes. Obviously he wants to win but he’s process-driven and he drives that for us.”
Meanwhile, as if Cleary’s efficiency in itself wasn’t sufficient, Tyrone Peachey later claimed the Penrith halfback had been taking part in by a dislocated finger and knee harm within the win.
“You all don’t know exactly what he’s been through,” Peachey stated.
“He dislocated his finger last week, I think he hurt his knee this week and ended up winning the Clive Churchill Medal. Everyone just needs to realise that he’s going to be great.
“He’s going to be an Immortal hopefully and he’s the best halfback I’ve ever played with. I’ve been around for a while and he’s a legend.
“No one sees it. He’s the hardest working player I’ve ever seen. Him, Fisher-Harris and Moses, Yeoy. They’re all just freaks.”
Cleary has come a great distance from the fresh-faced teenager that debuted seven years in the past now, constantly focused by a ruthless Storm unit in a 24-6 defeat.
Melbourne gamers ran on the 18-year-old all night time however Cleary wasn’t fazed, making 36 tackles and lacking simply three.
There was nothing flashy concerning the efficiency — no linebreaks or runaway tries like on Sunday night time.
But there have been glimpses of the type of excessive workrate that has made Cleary one of the vital constant halfbacks within the league since that Saturday night time in Melbourne again in 2016.
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Peter Wallace, who’s now certainly one of Penrith’s assistant coaches, was the Panthers hooker that night time.
“He obviously had a lot of talent and worked really hard,” Wallace informed foxsports.com.au.
“We always knew he was going to be something special.”
But this particular?
“He’s doing things at a young age that a lot of halfbacks don’t do,” Wallace added.
“He’s the last out on the field everyday, keeps doing all these extras, the last there watching video and doing all his rehab, recovery and everything like that. He’s the ultimate pro.
“He earns everything he gets and that’s why he played like he did tonight. I’m super stoked for him. He’s an awesome leader at the club.
“That’s why everyone else does what they do, because he shows the way.”
Perhaps Yeo put it greatest in Sunday’s post-game press convention, though the Penrith skipper wasn’t precisely leaping on the alternative to reward his teammate.
“I don’t like rapping him when he’s sitting here,” Yeo stated with a smile.
But he did. That’s simply how good his halfback is.
“I just feel like what he’s done in this space of time, no halfback has ever done it,” added Yeo.
“I reckon if you put his statistics up against absolutely any other halfback that has played at this point, he’s 25 — no one has done what he’s done. That 20-minute period he put the team on his back and he won us his third grand final in a row.”
Source web site: www.foxsports.com.au
