Nathan Cleary aims to finalise his future at Penrith quickly - and calls on club to name their next coach
NOW Penrith’s season has been put to bed, Nathan Cleary wants to sort out his own future with the club - and he knows just who he wants to take over as the Panthers’ new full-time coach.
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Nathan Cleary hopes to finalise his future at Penrith in the coming weeks, saying he doesn’t want talks to prolong over the summer.
Cleary had originally set a November 1 date to discuss his contract at the Panthers beyond the 2019 season.
But after bowing out of the competition against Cronulla on Friday night, the rising No. 7 says he wants to move promptly on his next deal.
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“I don’t want it to drag out,” Cleary said.
“I’ll have a couple of good days with the boys and do reviews and after that I’ll get down to talks and sort it out as quickly as possible.
“With that comes all the speculation and there is a lot of rubbish.
“If we can get it done as quickly as possible, I’ll be happy with that.”
In an ideal world Cleary will wait for Penrith to confirm a head coach for 2019 before making a decision on his own future.
“That would be nice, but I can’t really rely on that,” he said. “I’ve just got to focus on what I want to do and go from there.”
The Panthers are yet to confirm the club’s stance on the coaching position moving forward but Cleary has one man in mind.
He says he is the player see today because of caretaker Cameron Ciraldo and he’d like to see him handed the head coaching job next season.
Cleary has worked closely with Ciraldo dating back to his under 20s days and believes he is the coach to take the Panthers to the next level.
“I think everyone respects him and really likes him as a coach,” he said.
“In the last three weeks we’ve shown a lot of improvement and it is a credit to him.
“I’ve always loved playing under Siro. He has kind of turned me into the player I am today.
“He has shown a lot of faith in me.
“He has also taught me a lot of things along the way and he has always backed my ability.
“He helped me through the 20s and over the last year or two while he has been in and around first grade.
“I’ve owe a lot of my achievements to him.”
Cleary enjoyed a stellar 2018 season, including a successful Origin debut with Brad Fittler’s triumphant NSW Blues.
All this success was temporarily forgotten on Friday as the Panthers No. 7 came to terms with his side’s thrilling one-point loss to Cronulla.
Cleary had a chance to kick a field goal to send the match into extra-time but failed to convert.
“We’ve worked all year to get in that position and to not get that field goal is pretty disappointing,” he said.
“I kind of feel like I’ve let the boys down but oh well.
“The boys came out a different team in that second half and it is an absolute pleasure to play in this team.
“To be able to do that shows a lot of character. I was very proud of that.
“It has been a massive year for me. There have been highs and lows. I’m definitely feeling the low now but I’ve taken a lot of valuable experiences out of the year and it kind of fires the hunger in the belly even more for next year.”
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Originally published as Nathan Cleary aims to finalise his future at Penrith quickly - and calls on club to name their next coach
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