Young footy stars are tackling their dreams with hopes to play for Penrith

Kids at Nathan Cleary’s old junior club have been inspired to follow in the footsteps of the premiership-winning halfback.

For rugby league-starved juniors at Nathan Cleary’s old club, his Grand Final glory might as well have been theirs too.

Brothers Penrith Junior Rugby League Club makes a major point of reminding its players Cleary spent his mid-teens there before being absorbed into the Penrith Panthers’ under-16 representative program.

Junior coaches say when the Panthers achieved the game’s greatest honour on Sunday night, a fuse was lit under young Brothers players – and clubs across the region – whose own season has been cruelled with pandemic cancellations.

“Having something like this happen really does make a lot of local juniors want to play for Penrith,” Brothers Penrith Under-12 coach Matt Bruce said.

(L to R) Lucas Bruce (8), Zackery Ross (12) & Riley Bruce (12) with Dad & coach Matt Bruce, are young Penrith Panthers Fans who are celebrating the Grand Final win. Picture: Tim Pascoe

“You can actually see a lot of the kids playing who are coming up, and it gives them hope that one day they’ll be up in the league as well.”

Bruce said the lockdown had been tough for clubs right across Western Sydney and nowhere more than his club, which boasts about 20 current NRL players as former juniors, which fields dozens of junior and senior teams.

“It is tough, a lot of the money that the club spent through the canteen and paying out the contracts for the older boys, things like that, the club had to endure. Plus the kids missing out on footy,” he said.

Brothers Penrith also spawned the careers of legends like Des Hasler and Greg Alexander.

“I’ve seen some of the boys from back in 2016 from the Penrith juniors’ reps, like (Stephen) Crichton and (Spencer) Leniu, and all of these boys going through under 16s and into NRL,” Mr Bruce said.

“Nathan Cleary comes from our club, so it goes to show that kids can make it. It’s good for them to aspire to achieve that.”

Club secretary John Fowler said Cleary had donated Man of the Match bonus payments to the club and maintained a connection to his foundation club.

“He donated his match payments to us last year, he’s had a lot of interactions with the club. He’s come down to help out at training too,” Mr Fowler said.

Nathan Cleary in action in the grand final on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

Young Brothers players Riley Bruce, 12, Zackery Ross, 12, and Lucas Bruce, 7, were jumping up and down and screaming with excitement in their living room after Penrith Panthers secured the NRL premiership last Sunday night.

Riley said he found the close game to be very “entertaining” and went “crazy” after the final whistle was blown.

Asked who was his favourite member of the team, the young under 12s player said he it was Panthers hooker Apisai Koroisau “because he’s an inspiration”.