Like Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith, he has built his game not on rare brilliance but on relentless excellence
Parramatta know they cannot beat Nathan Cleary on Sunday night. The best they can hope for is to reduce his impact.Parramatta know they cannot beat Nathan Cleary on Sunday night. The best they can hope for is to reduce his impact.n rugby league, the story of great club dynasties is the story of great halves. Parramatta and Canterbury dominated the 1980s on the backs of Peter Sterling and Steve Mortimer.
That makes the signing of Ivan Cleary to coach the club in 2012 – a year on from leading the Warriors to the grand final – one of the most important in the history of the Panthers. The club thought they had signed a gun coach on the rise. Even with the knowledge he had a talented footballer as a son, they could not have imagined they would soon recruit the finest half-back of his generation and the catalyst for the greatest sustained run in club history.
Cleary is a perfectionist. He studies the game – his game, his opponent’s game, the game as a whole - and has from a young age. He is not one of those talented playmakers who relies on talent alone. While blessed with plenty of natural skill, he has also taken every opportunity at hand and feels a constant need to improve. There are skills at which he is already the best. Still he attempts to get better.
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