Nathan Cleary beats TikTok scandal, Origin critics with help of NFL coach
Nathan Cleary just wants to please everyone. And while it’s an admirable personality trait off the footy field, it was paralysing his ability to perform – until he got help from an NFL supercoach.
Nathan Cleary is a young man with an old problem.
Sure, they blame it now on Twitter. Or Snapchat. Whatever.
But the fear Cleary quietly battles in those last minutes before a game — or worse, after an error in play — is exactly what Floyd Patterson felt that night he lost a world heavyweight title to Ingemar Johansson.Which, you should know, was in 1959.
Long before the TikTok Challenge.
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Yet by his fourth knockdown that night in Yankee Stadium, while crawling about the canvas, Patterson would look up through the ring ropes, up and into the crowd, where no less than John Wayne sat ringside.
Which wasn’t good. Or not for a boxer dubbed Freud Patterson along press row. A fella so beset by mental demons, he routinely packed disguises into his suitcase on fight night — so in case of defeat, he could leave the venue unnoticed.
Which is why this night, as he crawled about the ring delirious, Patterson found himself looking out towards the actor, cursing: What would the Duke think of me?
Call it a fear Cleary knows well.
“And a fear,” the Penrith No.7 says, “that paralyses you.”
Seated now on an upturned milk crate outside Panthers HQ, Cleary is finally opening up on the private mental overhaul which, put simply, has been his making this year.
Sixty years ago, it carried no name. Not for men like Patterson.
Yet today, it’s what psychologists refer to as FOPO.
“Or fear of people’s opinion,” Cleary explains.
“It’s something I’ve really worked hard on this past year. And something that’s having a big impact on where I’m at.”
Which this particular Tuesday, is on the front lawn of Panthers Academy. With Cleary sat on that upturned crate in the club’s Clean Zone while, on the other side of a roped boundary fence (and, yes, the required 1.5m apart) we fire questions from a chair wheeled out by helpful Panthers staff.
Which is different, sure. But so is the rise of Cleary, right?
A Panthers No.7 who, currently, is the best player anywhere in the NRL. Argue it all you like. Plenty will.
Just as over this past year, even more have ripped into the 22-year-old who, despite the savagery of said tirades, has still risen up to become the top player in the competition’s top team.
More than overhauling his attack this year, Clearly has also overcome a TikTok scandal which, in April, resulted in him being fined, suspended and so rattled that some whispered you could put a line through the Panthers’ title hopes. Yet instead, Penrith leads the league.
Which is in no small part due to Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. But more on him shortly.
First, rewind to 2019. Back when Cleary was playing ordinary for Penrith, worse for NSW and on social media copping F-bombs as nouns, verbs, everything.
Still, you reckon he could look away?
No, just like Patterson, Clearly was obsessed by what “The Duke” was thinking.
“Yeah, reading social media a lot,” the halfback concedes. “Which wasn’t healthy. Especially given the way I was playing.”
Which led, he can now reveal, to real anxiety issues.
“Before games, I became so scared of what might go wrong,” Cleary continues.
“I wasn’t only worried about stuffing up, but worried about what other people were saying. There were even times in games where it would be in my mind too — I’d make a mistake and start worrying about what people would be thinking.
“And that fear, it affects you as a person, affects your ability to play. It paralyses you.”
Still, Clearly refused initially to believe he had a problem.
“I fought the fact that it was affecting me,” he says. “Tell myself I didn’t care. But then, I’d start reading stuff again. And I did care.
“Eventually it got to a point of ‘oh, shit’.”
Incredibly, Cleary admits his biggest fear was not the criticism of Origin greats or analysts, but anonymous donks with faceless social media handles.
“When the randoms start questioning you, I dunno,” he shrugs. “But it affects you more. I guess it’s that human response, wanting to please people. But that can’t always happen. So eventually, I went and talked with ‘H’ and we started to make some changes.”
Now by “H”, Cleary means Penrith high-performance boss Hayden Knowles.
A fella devoted this past summer to not only adding five kilos of muscle to the halfback’s frame, or raising his power clean to an impressive 130kg, but also improving his mind.
Importantly, Knowles will tell you it was a task Cleary accepted exactly as you would expect a kid long considered the hardest worker in any room.
More than devouring dozens of books and papers on the subject, the No.7 also enrolled in an online course conducted by Carroll, the XLVIII Super Bowl winner.
“A mindfulness course,” Cleary explains. “With Carroll talking a lot about combating FOPO through gratitude, living with purpose and listening to people who matter. So that’s now what I’m doing. Because while I know I’m not there yet, working on my mind has been the biggest thing for me.”
Take the TikTok drama from earlier this year.
“I was so disappointed in myself,” Cleary says. “And while I’d love to take back what I did, I can’t. Yet I also know that if the same incident happened last year, I would’ve been left rattled. But now, I have tools to move on”.
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Still, Cleary has to know his cleanskin image has taken a hit with fans, right? “I still care about how I’m perceived,” he says. “And I want to make good impressions, try to help others where I can. But I also understand that those who still dislike me, I can’t change that. And I can’t let it paralyse me again, either.”
Asked where his battles with FOPO began, and Cleary immediately points back to his 2018 Origin debut.
“My first two years in the NRL, it was plain sailing,” he recalls. “While I wasn’t playing anywhere like I am now, you’re the young guy so people don’t (criticise) too much.
“But as soon as you step into the Origin arena everyone’s perception of you changes. Suddenly, you need to be the best player on the field. That’s what people expect.
“And the moment I was selected for Origin, I could feel everything shift. As the young kid, everyone likes you. But once you’re picked for Origin, that’s when fans started saying I wasn’t any good. Or that I was overrated.
“And while I’m cool with that now, initially I didn’t deal with it the best.”
Importantly, Cleary understands the battle is not over, either. Which is why, most days, the halfback also involves himself in team yoga sessions and further mindfulness studies.
“I’m still only 22, so definitely haven’t got this covered,” Cleary concedes. “I know there’s still a long way to go. So you continue to learn, then move on.
“Because, personally, I don’t think you can ever be content. Doesn’t matter if it’s your football, your body, even your mind — you have to keep working.”
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