Cleary uncut: In his own words, this is how the Panthers won the miracle grand final

To Nathan Cleary, the play that capped the greatest grand final miracle in NRL history never should have happened. If he had his way, he would have got the ball a tackle earlier, when he really wanted it.

“I wanted it on that play [before], but then didn’t get it,” Cleary says. “I thought, ‘Oh, stuff it, just give it to me on the next play and I’ll see what will happen’.”

What happened is that Cleary, with an injured knee, stepped off his left foot, beat the flailing tackle attempts of Brisbane’s Adam Reynolds, Billy Walters and Jordan Riki, rushed past Broncos wonder boy Reece Walsh, who had clocked off for a second, and scored a try that will replayed for generations.

From 16 points behind with 17 minutes left, the Panthers had suddenly won their third successive title.

Twelve months on and in the lead-up to Sunday’s showdown with the Storm in yet another grand final, Cleary sat down with this masthead to give his private thoughts on how he engineered the finish to one of the greatest matches in rugby league history.

From what was said behind the tryline after Brisbane’s Ezra Mam scored his third try, to the trepidation over a gust of wind as he took a crucial sideline conversion, to what was going through his mind before the winning try with three minutes left, Cleary recalls in vivid detail the moments that led to a second Clive Churchill Medal.

“It’s not just the greatest 17 minutes I’ve seen from a player in a grand final, it’s the greatest 17 minutes I’ve seen from a player full stop,” league legend Andrew Johns says.

‘Oh my God, what the hell is going on?’

If Cleary produced the greatest finishing sequence to a rugby league match, then by his own admission, the 20 minutes before that was one of his most disheartening.

Having led at half-time, the Panthers found themselves 24-8 down when Walsh whizzed past Cleary to set up Mam’s third try in 10 minutes. Cleary had done something neither he, nor any other Panthers player, would usually do – rushed out of the defensive system.

“I was thinking I would outsmart him and cheat a little bit, get out harder and get in front of him so he couldn’t get past me as easily,” Cleary says. “As soon as I did that, he snapped me so quickly off that left foot. I knew he had good feet, but I couldn’t believe when that happened. I was like, ‘Wow’. I turned around and he was in the backfield and Ezra was scoring his third. I thought, ‘Oh my God, what the hell is going on?’”

The first thing Cleary did when he rejoined his stunned teammates behind the tryline was apologise.

“I remember I wanted to get back there among the boys and try to be positive,” he says. “First of all, I apologised. I said, ‘sorry boys, that’s on me. But just focus on the next set as we have to try to get back in the game’. There were a few eyes wandering around probably thinking what I was thinking.”

Ezra Mam celebrates a try for the Broncos in the grand final.Credit: Getty

Catching out an old mate

By the time the Panthers launch their fightback needing almost a point a minute to run down the rampant Broncos, Cleary’s halves partner Jarome Luai has left the field after carrying a shoulder injury into the game. Jack Cogger replaces him.

The Panthers use Cogger at first receiver to switch up their attack, allowing Cleary to stand wider of the ruck. Like all good halfbacks, Cleary decides to run when he needs a big play to get his team back into the game – and on this occasion he beats ex-teammate Kurt Capewell, who was part of Penrith’s 2021 premiership, having spotted Mam preoccupied with Liam Martin to his outside.

“I sort of knew there was fatigue [coming into] the game, particularly from early on when we had a lot of possession,” Cleary says of Penrith’s first-half dominance.

After making the break, Cleary finds an unlikely support player on the inside: prop Moses Leota. Cleary remembers seeing Leota before he made the burst, but thought the 107kg beast would have no chance of helping him.

“He was sort of in line with Tyson Smoothy at the time,” Cleary says. “I was thinking, ‘I don’t know if Mos will be able to get past him’. I then looked back again, and he was right there. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

In big games, kick early

Ask any analyst, and they will tell you one of Cleary’s favourite plays is the 40-20 kick across his body. It will be from a play-the-ball in the left corridor, a pass back towards the middle of the field and Cleary hooking his right-footed kick back across his body. This time, Cleary catches Brisbane winger Jesse Arthars napping. But can you blame him? Leota has just been tackled on the third play, but Cleary fires his bullet well before the end of the set.

“I wanted to do this kind of kick early in the game,” Cleary says. “We scored points and I knew we had a little bit of momentum. We had a quick play-the-ball from Mos, so I knew I wasn’t going to get any pressure. It just opened up. I wasn’t really thinking about the tackle count, to be honest.”

‘We’re really on here’

If Penrith fans were daring to dream after Cleary’s 40-20 kick, then it became more of a reality when Stephen Crichton scored with 12 minutes left. Like the first try of the comeback, Cleary stands wider at second receiver and allows Cogger to take the first pass off the ruck.

“Honestly, Cogs is super underrated in that grand final,” Cleary says. “Not only did he square up the defence well, but he came on and brought really good communication. He really freed all of us up, I think.”

Cleary’s role is quite simple in the sequence: get the ball to Crichton as quickly as possible for the centre to score his fourth try in as many grand finals. He muscled his way past Kotoni Staggs, which would be at the forefront of Cleary’s thinking for the frenetic finish.

The gust of wind that almost blew the comeback

Phil Gould has a saying: when you’re chasing down big deficits, you need to be going up in sixes rather than fours. Translation: every conversion is crucial.

With Crichton’s try making the score 24-18, Cleary knew his kick from near the sideline was pivotal because it would take a field goal out of the equation for Adam Reynolds and the Broncos.

But just as he was about to move in to strike the ball, Cleary felt a gust of wind which momentarily put him off.

“I remember lining up the kick and as I was at the top of my run-up, I felt this breeze start to come into the stadium,” he says. “It was a bit swirly. I thought, ‘Do I reset where I want to aim?’ I didn’t even know which way the wind was going. I just felt this gust.”

He went ahead anyway.

“Once it gets through the posts, it straightens up again [due to the wind],” he says. “I remember that clearly.”

‘We studied his dropouts’: Why Cleary was prepared for the trick shot

It might seem like a nondescript play, but Cleary tries to run the ball near half-way with minutes remaining. His target is Reynolds. The Brisbane skipper does a good job to haul him down to his outside, but Cleary is storing it in the memory bank for later.

“I knew that given Critta had previously scored, Kotoni would be quite worried about him,” Cleary says. “I thought it was going to give me a one-on-one with Adam.”

After more concerted Panthers pressure and with the clock ticking, Reynolds tries a trick dropout. He aims a low and flat kick, trying to bounce it in the field of play and over the sideline.

But Reynolds slightly overcooks it and a canny Cleary, aware of the rules of the game, gets his foot over the sideline and catches the ball, meaning it would be a penalty to Penrith (the NRL changed the rules on dropouts this year).

“We’d done a bit of study on his dropouts and what he could pull out,” Cleary says. “This was one of them. He was probably the best at that low, flat one towards the sideline, bouncing it out. I knew it was definitely in his kitbag and he was prepared for it. As it was in the air, I was like, ‘Do I leave it?’ If I left it, it probably would have been the better play, but I was already there.”

‘It didn’t feel real. It still doesn’t’: How the winning try unfolded

The play that won it all wasn’t even meant to be.

When was the last time you’ve ever seen Cleary show any sense of frustration on the field? If you watch close enough, with just over three minutes left and his team trailing by four with Brisbane hanging on for dear life, Cleary throws his arms out when he doesn’t get the ball at a time he wanted it.

Nathan Cleary celebrates his grand final-winning try.Credit: NRL Photos

Closing in on the Broncos’ line, hooker Mitch Kenny first hits James Fisher-Harris with a short ball. He’s desperately dragged down. Cleary hovers on the left, and again Kenny looks that way, but throws another short pass to Scott Sorensen, who is also dragged down. In the foreground of the television picture is a frustrated Cleary.

“The play where he hits Soz is the play I really wanted it,” Cleary says.

But at the third time of asking, Kenny finally gives the ball to Cleary, but not until he looks to go to the longer right side, making Riki and Walsh hesitate at marker.

“Mitch’s deception is something that is really underrated in the try,” Cleary says. “He’s just as much as to credit to that try than I am.”

That’s being humble.

So, how did it actually happen? Remember when Cleary tried to beat Reynolds on the outside a few minutes earlier? He knows Reynolds will be thinking about that again, and the little No.7 quickens to his right to stop that possibility.

“Reynolds rushed up which forced me to come back to the inside,” Cleary says. “It’s all a bit of a blur. I remember stepping inside and I just saw this gap opening up. I’d like to say I saw all of that happen, but it was pretty much just instinct.”

Having beat four Broncos defenders, Cleary touches down under the posts, setting up the easiest of conversions to win the game: the game’s best player, soldiering on with a busted knee, his team 16 points down with 17 minutes to go, basically doing it all himself to win the game.

“It didn’t feel real,” Cleary says. “It still doesn’t really. In that moment, I don’t even remember what I was thinking. I just remember getting up, throwing the ball and thinking, ‘holy s—’. It didn’t feel real for a few days to be honest, what had happened, how it happened.

“And I think those things set you up for wanting it more.”

NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now

Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.