Crawley Files: Can Nathan Cleary and Tom Trbojevic respond to super coaches’ stifling blueprint?

Matty Johns wants him to stay aat the Knights, the Raiders need a half and there’s interest from overseas - where will Mitch Pearce play in 2022?

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary. Picture: Scott Davis/NRL Photos

Mitchell Pearce still has a year to run on his contract at Newcastle.

But Pearce’s performance in the season-ending loss to Parramatta must be a huge concern for everyone at the club going forward given he finished the match without a single run, five missed tackles and two errors.

It was interesting to hear Matty Johns come out this week to say why the Knights needed to keep Pearce.

Yet it is a fact Pearce’s name has been mentioned to some rival clubs as he chases a two-year deal.

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Are Mitchell Pearce’s days at the Knights numbered? Picture: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

You’d imagine his performance last Sunday would not have done those hopes much help.

Canberra is on the lookout for a halfback to partner Jack Wighton next year but the Raiders are extremely mindful of paying big money to a 32-year-old when there is such a significant risk it could backfire.

Surely they will look in a different direction.

The talk is Pearce may end up playing out his career in the Super League in France.

BEAT THE BLUEPRINT? HOW COACHES EXPOSED SUPERSTARS

I’ve always admired Nathan Cleary for the way he handles himself for such a young bloke.

But I thought he really showed his class this week with his response to one not-so-simple question.

If it was me at the same age I probably would have told the journo to get stuffed, and walked out on his interview when was asked if it was “unfair to call his dad the next Brian Smith”.

I admit my first response was to laugh.

Then I sat there and listened to how he answered and all I kept thinking was how unfair it was asking a young man that question about his own father.

Put yourself in his shoes and think how you might react.

It certainly may have been acceptable if the question had been directed at Ivan Cleary in relation to the fact that he has now coached the second most amount of game’s ever without winning a premiership.

(Although you could also argue making two grand finals is better than none, but that’s a column for another day).

But right now I want to focus on Nathan’s reaction.

Because perhaps it just gave an insight into why I expect Penrith’s young superstar playmaker to bounce back against Parramatta on Saturday night.

It’s so easy to forget Cleary is still only 23.

Nathan Cleary showed his class off the field this week but can he show on it when Penrith take on Parramatta. Picture: Ian Hitchcock/Getty

At an age in his development in rugby league and life where most young men would fall to pieces if left to deal with the same level of scrutiny.

Yeah, people say Cleary gets paid a $1 million-plus a year to play footy, so it’s his duty to deal with the good and the bad. Which of course is the reality.

Yet the older you get the easier it is to look back and realise all the money in the world doesn’t buy life experience.

But while I thought it was extremely tough throwing this particular question at a young man who was only guilty of being caught in the crossfire of a war of words between his old man and Wayne Bennett, this is also where Cleary just maybe gave a small sign of where his mindset is at.

And perhaps he hasn’t been taking all this hyperbole as seriously as the rest of us in the days that have followed South Sydney’s shock win over Penrith.

A dejected Tom Trbojevic. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty

Because instead of blowing up, or letting slip how much he might have been hurting, the Panthers’ playmaker allowed just a little hint of a smile to slip out of the side of his mouth.

Nathan then went on to explain how “it is pretty hard to win a premiership, I think anyone will tell you that”.

And right there is the real reason for this column today.

Because handling the pressure of finals footy is never for the faint hearted.

Yet it is usually what separates the best from the rest. When the pressure chews up and spits out those that can’t handle it.

Make no mistake, what the fallout of the spat between Ivan and Bennett last week has largely overshadowed in the last few days is the genuine football story to emerge from the opening weekend of the finals.

That being, how the two grand masters of rugby league coaching in Bennett and Craig Bellamy took the two young players currently rated the best in the game in Cleary and Tom Trbojevic back to school.

And in doing so Bennett and Bellamy effectively outlined a blueprint that turned the young hunters into the hunted.

But for how long?

Now it’s time for the young guns to show what they’re made of and fight back.

In Cleary’s case it is how he counters Bennett’s ability to expose the Panthers’ illegal tactics used by their blockers to give Nathan that extra split-second of time to prepare his towering kicks.

Forget all the talk about the supposed mind games at work pre-and-post match and how Bennett planned them. Bennett’s main priority from the moment he first spoke to referees’ boss Jared Maxwell was only ever about making sure the correct rules were applied.

For ages I have scratched my head at how Nathan always seemed to have so much time to prepare his kicks, as opposed to the other halfbacks who always seemed under the gun.

But then Bennett explained it to us all, opening the blinds to how Penrith’s blockers were moving sideways and backwards illegally into the path of the kick chasers to stop them getting to the halfback.

And when this was relayed on national TV everyone got to see it clearly.

Wayne Bennett outfoxed the Panthers. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty

It upped the pressure on the refs and left them with no alternative to respond.

Suddenly the player who had been streets ahead of every other playmaker this season with his kicking game that gave rival fullbacks heart palpitations looked vulnerable.

And that seemed to impact on other areas of the Panthers’ performance.

They still created opportunities, but struggled to ice them.

It’s worth acknowledging there was still only six points in the result, which shows if the Panthers get it right, look out Parra. But what might be most interesting is watching how the referees also respond to all the fallout from the last seven days. And whether or not the Eels are afforded the same latitude to place kick pressure on Cleary as Souths had, which is only fair.

How it ultimately plays out it could be key to the rest of this finals series.

If the Panthers go through as I expect, to play Melbourne, the Storm will see what Souths did and take it to the next level.

In previous years it has always been Melbourne under attack for the go-slow tactics in the ruck. But the tactics used against Manly certainly led to no complaints.

Sure, they were still ruthless. But the way they went about applying the blowtorch directly on Trbojevic seemed well within the rules.

I have no doubt the Roosters will attempt to use similar tactics this week.

But do they still have the players on deck to make it work?

It would be an amazing effort for Trent Robinson’s injury ravaged team to go through to a preliminary final to meet up with their arch rivals Souths given all they have gone through this season.

I just don’t know if they have it in them to do to Turbo what Melbourne did. But one thing’s for certain this weekend: How two young champions respond to their lessons learned in week one of the finals will have a huge bearing who stays alive this season.

BIG NIGHT FOR GUTHO AND ARTHUR

Clint Gutherson has been Parramatta’s best and most consistent player in recent years. But where would the Eels be without coach Brad Arthur?

Well …. are we about to find out?

From the moment the man Eels fans call “King” kicked out on the full on the opening play of last weekend’s finals win over Newcastle, something just wasn’t completely right with Gutho.

Plenty suspect Gutherson is being hampered by injury.

Yet his biggest game ever could be on Saturday night in the sudden-death clash against arch-rival Penrith because there is so much riding on the result, for Gutho and many others at the club.

Clint Gutherson has been Parramatta’s best and most consistent player in recent years. Picture: Dan Peled/Getty Images

Gutherson will restart contract negotiations when his duties are finished for the year. Depending on how that pans out, it could be massive for the future of the Eels.

There is also the future of Arthur to consider given week two of the finals has been a roadblock for him previously, while there are also a stack of other players coming off contract at the end of next season.

What won’t go away is Brad Fittler’s name being linked to the Eels. Fittler is apparently pretty good mates with Parramatta football boss Mark O’Neill. It has been widely reported that O’Neill and Arthur don’t get on.

As they say when puffs of smoke start appearing on the horizon, there’s usually fire.

SOUTHS HAIL UNSUNG HERO GRAHAM

South Sydney’s Campbell ­Graham is the most underrated right centre in the NRL bar none.

But rest assured the 22 year old’s inspirational defensive efforts in the Rabbitohs’ gutsy first up finals victory over Penrith didn’t go unnoticed.

While plenty of teams struggle to stop points on their right edge (against what is almost always the rival team’s most lethal attack on the left), Graham is the glue that holds the Bunnies together.

And he was tremendous working with young winger Jaxson Paulo on Saturday night as they continued to stand up to wave after wave of the Panthers’ onslaught coming from the likes of Jarome Luai, Matt Burton, Viliame Kikau and Brian To’o.

While Adam Reynolds was widely recognised as the Bunnies’ best after outpointing Nathan Cleary, Tom Burgess (who finished with 203m off the bench) and Graham (105m and 24 tackles) certainly had their share of support from those who matter within.

Cleary hits back at ‘protected species’ sledge

- Fatima Kdouh

Nathan Cleary was just eight years old when he watched his father begin his mission to climb the NRL’s summit and coach a premiership side.

So Cleary is better placed than most to realise winning a title “is a tough mountain to climb”, even for the leader of the star-studded Mountain Men from Penrith.

Ivan Cleary is second to Brian Smith, who coached 605 games, for most games without a premiership win. Cleary has now coached 367 games with no grand final win to his name after leading the Warriors, Tigers and Panthers.

Despite going down to South Sydney 16-10 last weekend in Townsville, Nathan believes his father’s title drought can still be broken in 2021.

“It’s pretty hard to win a premiership,” Nathan said. “I think anyone will tell you that we’re doing our best to try and get there. That’s obviously the goal. That’s every football player’s goal that puts on a jersey and that is no different for us.

Nathan Cleary and his father Ivan are determined to go one better than last year when they lost the grand final to Melbourne. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“It’s a tough mountain to climb, but you know we can put in our best effort to try and get there. We’re still on this journey, one loss doesn’t change that.

“You just take lessons out of it. Some of the greatest lessons can come out of a loss and challenging times. That’s the mindset we’ve got and we’re not changing anything.”

Only last week, Ivan leapt to the defence of Nathan questioning the tactics used by South Sydney to target the halfback after a report revealed Wayne Bennett had filed a series of complaints with referees about Penrith using blockers to protect Nathan from any kick pressure.

“Nah, definitely not,” Nathan said when asked if he thought he was a ‘protected species’ on the field. The 23-year-old also insisted that Gerard Sutton did not officiate last Saturday night’s match differently to any other game during the season.

Cleary said putting on kick pressure defensively and in turn trying to minimise kick pressure offensively, was a strategy that the ‘better’ teams use to get an edge in a match.

“It’s something that every team tries to do, try and limit the kick pressure as much as possible,” Nathan said.

“I think every team tries to put kick pressure on, it’s a goal for every team when you come up against other better teams, the way to win is to try and control field position.

“The way to do that is to have good kick pressure. And to combat that, you try and get good position on the field, try and get quick play-the-balls to get less kick pressure.”

Nathan Cleary of the Panthers kicks during the NRL Qualifying Final match between Penrith Panthers and South Sydney Rabbitohs at QCB Stadium, on September 11, 2021, in Townsville, Australia. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

Saturday’s loss to the Rabbitohs has Penrith on a collision course with fierce western Sydney rivals, the Parramatta Eels.

The do or die showdown is likely to come down to the two halfbacks.

Eels No.7 Mitchell Moses, who replaced the injured Cleary for NSW in Origin III, was instrumental in his side’s week one 28-20 win over Newcastle.

“He was really good on the weekend,” Nathan said of Moses. “I was very impressed with the way he played. Obviously his running game was a massive threat.

“We’ll be doing a lot of homework on him. He’s obviously a great player and in some red-hot form at the moment, so it will be a good challenge for us to come up against him and it’s something we are looking forward to.”