Penrith Panthers now Nathan Cleary’s team and NRL premiership charge finally clicking into gear

OVER the past few weeks, Penrith have become Nathan Cleary’s team and the inconsistent Panthers have finally found some composure and tempo, writes Matthew Johns.

I BUMPED into Panthers legend Royce Simmons at Randwick Races last Saturday.

Our conversation quickly turned to Penrith’s outstanding young halfback, Nathan Cleary.

“Royce, you blokes have got a gem in young Cleary.”

Royce replied: “Matty, he’s just a beautiful kid.”

Royce went on to tell me a story which shows Nathan is just as classy off the field, as he is on it.

It was a few weeks back and Royce was taking a fellow and his young daughter on a tour of the Panthers’ facilities.

Nathan Cleary of the Panthers. Picture: Getty Images

Out on the training field Nathan Cleary was just finishing off his goalkicking practice.

The fellow turned to Royce and asked whether his young daughter could approach the star No. 7 and get her football signed.

Royce, knowing the quality of their half’s character had no hesitation in allowing the young girl to approach Nathan and get her signature.

But Nathan went one better, he took the ball into the team gym and emerged five minutes later with the entire team’s signatures all over the young fan’s ball.

Classy. He gets that from his dad.

Nathan and Ivan should be congratulated on the way they embraced the unique father/son clash last Sunday.

Rather than play it down, they engaged the media with good humour in promoting the fixture and occasion.

Nathan’s football has exploded in the last six weeks. It was in the Round 16 loss to the Cowboys, that I saw a change in his football.

He suddenly started exploring outside the normal structure of the team attack. He was testing the defence, looking to create something, something out of nothing.

That’s what the best ballplayers have always done, try to manufacture opportunity when nothing appears on.

Panthers Nathan Cleary in action against the Wests Tigers. Picture. Phil Hillyard

That’s why they’re called creative players, they don’t need to see opportunity to create opportunity.

It was a big step forward in his football and he looked confident and comfortable doing it.

Then a few weeks later was a performance which marked a big leap forward.

Penrith travelled to Auckland in a crucial clash against the Warriors. For Penrith it shaped as a difficult assignment, missing some key personnel to injury, including key player Matt Moylan.

In analysing the possible outcome I looked at the key creative men and it read like this — Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Kieran Foran, Shaun Johnson and Isaac Luke v Nathan Cleary.

Four established internationals against a kid, who just a few years earlier was the Warriors’ ball boy.

Well, guess what? The ball boy gave them an absolute caning.

Cleary dominated the contest in every area. He kicked beautifully, his ball-playing was classy and clever, and he tore the Warriors to shreds with his running game.

From that match on, the Penrith Panthers have become Nathan Cleary’s team.

Each week he’s adding to his game.

With Cleary’s growing dominance, the Panthers have finally found some composure and tempo in 2017.

Panthers Nathan Cleary scores ahead of Wests Tigers James Tedesco. Picture. Phil Hillyard

For most of this season they have played without breaks, with their up-tempo attack causing as many problems for themselves as it did the defence.

But they’ve settled and found the right balance. The loss of Moylan for a couple of weeks didn’t hurt. It showed Penrith the benefits of trying to do less.

I’m excited to see Moylan return. With Cleary showing he’s now capable of running the team, it will allow Moylan to slip back in and do what he does best, react to visual opportunity and run the ball.

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Penrith have done a superb job in how they’ve nurtured Cleary over the past couple of seasons.

Greg Alexander has been spending more and more time with the young playmaker in a mentoring role. There’s no one better to show a young star the ropes than Brandy, the improvement in Nathan is testimony to that.

This is another huge game for Penrith against the Cowboys on Saturday night. St George Illawarra and Canberra are desperate for them to slip up.

They’ll need their No. 7 to be on his game and you can bet he will be.

Originally published as Penrith Panthers now Nathan Cleary’s team and NRL premiership charge finally clicking into gear