Paul Kent: Pressure on Nathan Cleary after Brad Fittler opts against dropping him for Origin II
It seems Queensland know Nathan Cleary’s weakness and it’s enough to give Brad Fittler sleepless nights, PAUL KENT writes.
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Two games straight now Nathan Cleary has failed to come up to the mark.
That they were his two biggest games of his season so far, with two to go, is why Brad Fittler has not slept since October and might not again until Christmas.
The job for the NSW coach is to sort the necessary from the noise, which began on Friday when he confirmed Cleary had retained the NSW No.7 jumper.
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It is easy to become confused in the fog of an Origin loss. So many experts, so many opinions, and almost all valid.
The answer, so far as Fittler is concerned, is more simple than might be first thought.
Origin is not that complex.
The four pillars are high completion rates, early kicks, discipline and strong defence. It all contributes to pressure.
The trick plays and finesse, the stuff coaches think impress players, are the garnish in Origin.
Unfortunately for the Blues, it is a lesson often forgotten.
Too often the Blues fall in love with what is written on the team sheet, fooled into believing the result will be decided there, and try to finesse their way to victory. The Blues out-thought themselves in Origin I, while Queensland simply get on with giving the best they have for as long as they have, playing simple footy.
It is what the Blues do every time they get it wrong.
Meanwhile, Queensland did what Queensland always do; they stayed in the fight when momentum was against them, offering nothing but effort, waiting their turn.
When the Maroons are under the pump they never refer to it as pressure. They simply say to each other that they are “absorbing”.
It is a mindset that gets them through their more difficult times until they can make the right adjustments when the opportunity comes and regain the momentum.
Queensland coach Wayne Bennett challenged playmaker Daly Cherry-Evans in the halftime break.
Cherry-Evans straightened Queensland up, played through the middle to create momentum, and on the back of that the game’s best instinctive player, Cameron Munster, tore them open.
Meanwhile, the Blues were waiting for help to get out of it.
The Blues had no answer when momentum was lost. Instead of fighting to win it back they went passive, as if something magical might happen, like a penalty or six again call to get them out of trouble.
That happens in club football, not Origin. That sits on Cleary, charged with steering the team.
After Fittler renewed his faith in the NSW half on Friday it is up to Cleary to show he can transition from a dominant club player to a dominant Origin player.
Not every player can.
Cleary turned in a season that saw him find new levels this season as a player at Penrith. He was consistently the best player all season.
And it happened so simply.
With Trent Barrett drawing up the Panthers attack, Penrith fell into a pattern of Cleary drifting across field and dropping one player underneath, then a second, with a block shape out wide.
It worked over and over again, Cleary comfortable in the structure that gave him just enough options, but not too many.
It helped that Cleary is the game’s most deliberate thinker, which was also the flaw inside.
Nobody could shut him down until Melbourne got him in the grand final. Aware of his attacking preferences, the Storm attacked his shapes.
When Suliasi Vunivalu intercepted the ball to skip off for a try, it was no fluke. He was there deliberately to interrupt Cleary’s rhythm, defending outside in, and Cleary did not have the discipline to hold the pass. The intercept was a bonus.
The flaw in his style with a Blues jumper on is that such a style works in club football but is too sideways in Origin football.
When the Blues were looking to Cleary for direction in the second half last Wednesday, Cleary went to what he knew, which was sideways football.
When that didn’t work, he couldn’t straighten the Blues attack.
There is a reason Wally Lewis is Origin’s greatest-ever player. It’s because he is perhaps the game’s greatest ever instinctive player.
Lewis was the best at recognising the game situation had changed.
At some point after this campaign Cleary could do well to watch Lewis in 1989 when Queensland were gone and Lewis somehow resurrected them.
It was a total different kind of football played back then but the lesson is the same.
The Maroons lost Allan Langer, Mal Meninga and Paul Vautin to injury. Bob Lindner hobbled around on what scans later revealed was a broken leg.
Aware his team was busted Lewis picked the Maroons up on his back and carried them home, running more, kicking smart, picking up the aggression.
The game plan was long gone, turned to confetti. The King had the smell in his nostrils for what needed to be done.
Similar lessons were still there for Queensland all these years later when adjustments were made at halftime.
Fittler has a week to change Cleary’s mindset.
A week ago Paul Crawley waded into what was not, admittedly, his first fight in this game, questioning if Cleary was in a right mental state to play the opening game.
It drew the predicted outrage from Origin camp, where for some reason they carry an expectation the biggest and toughest in the game must be treated with the care of baby kittens once in Origin camp.
Yet on SEN radio on Friday the Blues’ greatest player, Andrew Johns, also questioned whether Cleary was in the right emotional state for an Origin campaign.
“Nathan’s had a huge year physically but also emotionally,” Johns said.
“At the start of the year he had that drama, or scandal with the TikTok dancing. Then all the stuff leading in to the Dally M, that sort of wears you down.
“Then, emotionally, a two-week build-up to the grand final. Losing the grand final. He was shattered after that.
“Emotionally, he probably needs a rest.”
Johns’s comments carry a certain irony given part of why Cleary is so highly regarded is because of the ice cubes clinking in his veins.
Lack of emotion might have been his problem Wednesday night, not an asset.
With it all out in the open, though, we now get to see our best glimpse of Cleary yet.
Vale Reggie, thanks for inspiring a legend
Not many of us, when the One Great Scorer comes to mark us down, can claim to have such a profound effect on another person’s life that we can say we changed their life forever.
Reggie O’Malley, known forever around Newtown and Erskineville as Reggie Marbuck, passed away this week but goes to his maker knowing he had a life-changing effect on a young boy he ran into in Erskineville more than 60 years ago.
Reggie was driving along Erskineville Rd when he saw the skinny little kid from the neighbourhood walking along the side of the road.
Johnny Lewis was 12 at the time and the best he knew of the fights each Monday night at Sydney Stadium was listening to them on radio with his dad Alf and then reliving those sounds through the words he read in the next day’s newspaper.
“What are you doing?” Reggie said to Johnny this day.
“Nothing.”
“You want to come to the fights?”
Reggie Marbuck paid Johnny Lewis’ entry to the fights that night - those who know Johnny say it might have been the difference from him attending or not - but, regardless, the live action that night sparked a love affair that saw Johnny go on to train numerous world champions, including Jeff Fenech and Kostya Tszyu, and several years ago be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Reggie was 81 and leaves behind his children Deborah, Brenda, Reggie Jr and Nathan. His funeral will be at Dapto Chapel at 2pm Monday and Johnny will give the eulogy.
He wants to thank Reggie.
Originally published as Paul Kent: Pressure on Nathan Cleary after Brad Fittler opts against dropping him for Origin II