‘I am obsessed’: Nathan Cleary’s lifelong plan to be the perfect footballer | Andrew Webster
The great players live in two worlds. There’s this world, the perpetual shitfight in which nothing goes right.
With ball in hand, he was feigning passes and kicks. He was stepping defenders who weren’t there. “He was shadow playing,” Ivan recalls.When it was time for the cameras to roll, Ivan called his son over.Andrew Johns knows where Cleary was. He’s been on that planet. Most players do “extras” but the greats put themselves through exponential sessions, so they can master their craft.
Johnathan Thurston was known to drag a rowing machine into the middle of the field, row for his life, then immediately line up a goal kick from a difficult angle. He was simulating landing match-winning goals under fatigue.As for Johns, he’s been wrongly pigeonholed as someone who played hard, lived harder. Few saw his solo runs up and down the stairs at Merewether Beach in the dark until he vomited.
“That’s not uncommon to be honest,” Cleary says of doing so much kicking practice. “I have the same preparation for every game, so I have peace of mind. I want to take the field without any regrets. There were a few specific things I wanted to work on for that game that I put more focus into.”Those specific things related to something Ivan had seen from the stands at Accor Stadium when NSW lost game one.
“I’ve never been prouder. I’ve coached a lot of footy, seen a lot of players, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone to do that. It wasn’t like he was backed into a corner and he had to do it. He just did it.”
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