2 hours ago
1
Blues enforcer Liam Martin has a confession: he doesn’t reckon he could handle being Nathan Cleary.
Give him a tough carry into a wall of fired-up Maroons defenders any day over having the hopes of an entire state resting on his shoulders.
“I honestly don’t think I’d be able to do it,” Martin says of his Panthers teammate. “There is so much responsibility on halfbacks.
“I’ve admired him my whole career, just the way he’s been able to handle the pressure.”
State of Origin III in Brisbane on Wednesday night, with the series locked at 1-1, looms as one of the biggest games of Cleary’s decorated career.
The biggest? Are we getting ahead of ourselves?
“Every game you go into – like grand finals, Origin deciders or Origins in general – you think it’s the biggest game you’ve ever been a part of,” Cleary says. “This is probably no different.”
Cleary is under no illusions about what awaits. He speaks calmly about the adulation or criticism that will inevitably be hurled in his direction.
“You’re either the hero or the villain,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s that mentality of live by the sword or die by the sword.
“The beauty of sport, particularly rugby league, is you’ve never completed it. You’ve never fully worked it out, and when you think you have, it drags you right back down to earth.”
Cleary is, according to Martin and many others, the best player in the NRL, and perhaps the best of his generation.
He is a four-time premiership-winning halfback with the Panthers, a two-time Clive Churchill Medallist for man of the match in a great final, and the chief architect of one of the greatest dynasties in Australian sport.
Yet, State of Origin has remained his most complicated relationship.
Cleary has a 47 per cent winning record in Origin – nine wins and 10 losses since his Blues debut as a 20-year-old in Melbourne in 2018 – and has never played in a victorious NSW side in game three of a series. In other words, he’s never won an Origin decider.
Rightly or wrongly, Cleary remains dogged by a narrative that he has never “owned Origin”.
It is an inescapable storyline heading into the third instalment of a series that NSW are fortunate to still be alive in, thanks in large part to Kalyn Ponga’s ill-fated shoulder charge in game one that dramatically altered the course of that contest in Sydney.
Cleary has been asked countless times about his Origin record. But does it bother him?
“No, not really,” he says. “At the end of the day, it’s not about me, it’s about our state, this team and my job in it.”
Cleary’s efforts in 2021 are often forgotten. The Blues belted Queensland 50-6 in Townsville before thumping them 26-0 in Brisbane in game two. Cleary missed game three because of the dislocated shoulder he suffered in that second match. He refused to leave the field despite the injury.
Martin believes it is “ridiculous” to suggest Cleary has somehow fallen short of expectations in Origin, while NSW and Penrith captain Isaah Yeo is equally quick to leap to the defence of his long-time teammate.
“Everyone talks about Joey Johns and 2005. That was one series. There were some series I’m sure he wasn’t overly happy as well,” Yeo says.
“Wally Lewis is probably the one that sort of feels like he owned it.
“I feel like Nath is in such a sweet spot. It’s probably a byproduct of how good he is and how much success he’s had and what the expectation is.
“He doesn’t really pump his own tyres up … and I just think he doesn’t worry too much about other people’s opinions.”
There are clear themes that emerge when speaking to Cleary ahead of the Brisbane blockbuster.
He is “excited” and grateful for the “opportunity” to play. He is trying to “enjoy” the week and focus on his “preparation”.
They’re clichés, of course, but they are also straight from the Cleary playbook: never too high; never too low. He does not need another commentator, journalist or fan to remind him he is under pressure.
“It’s probably easy to think too much about the result or the pressure around it, and that soaks all the joy out of it,” Cleary says. “That’s not something I want to do.”
In eight series since 2018 – he did not feature at all for the Blues in 2024 due to a hamstring injury – Cleary has played in Origin III four times. Three of those were deciders. The Blues lost all of them.
Cleary missed the two deciders NSW have won in recent years – in 2019 and 2024 – through injury. Since 2018, NSW have won four of their seven matches without Cleary.
He steered NSW to series victories in 2018 and 2021, and was influential in game two of the 2019 series, when the Blues levelled with a 38-6 victory in Perth.
But an ankle injury that night left Cleary “devastated” at missing the series decider, opening the door for Mitchell Pearce to reclaim the No.7 jersey in Sydney in a game etched into Origin history by James Tedesco’s last-gasp try.
“It was disappointing,” Cleary says of not being part of game three in 2019. “But I couldn’t do too much about it, and it was about getting behind the boys and supporting them.
“It was such an unbelievable night and being in the crowd and watching that unfold was pretty cool. It’d be nice to do something similar [this week].”
It would be lazy to suggest a NSW defeat automatically amounts to a failure on Cleary’s part, although few players in rugby league wield more influence over a match. He is a master at orchestrating set plays, controlling tempo and repeatedly steering his teams into the right areas of the field. His combination with Mitchell Moses, whose long kicking game is arguably the best in the NRL, will be pivotal.
Cleary could produce the game of his life and still finish on the losing side. He was named man of the match in game one, yet walked away from the Blues’ 44-24 loss at the MCG in game two disgusted with his own performance.
But the hardest of the lot to take was game three last year in Sydney. Another decider. Another defeat.
Queensland stunned the Blues by taking a 20-0 half-time lead – the match finished 24-12 – leaving Cleary once again confronting uncomfortable questions about his Origin legacy.
After a quick debrief in the corner of the Accor Stadium sheds with his parents, Ivan and Rebecca, the NSW No.7 agreed to take a few questions from reporters.
“At the end of the day I haven’t [owned an Origin series],” Cleary said after the match. “I’m the harshest marker of myself, so I don’t think what other people say is out of line because I think that of myself anyway.
“It’s sinking in now. [I’m] just trying to work out what happened.”
Now he gets a shot at redemption. Cleary’s girlfriend, Matildas star Mary Fowler, last week described him as a perfectionist and said that this is the arena where he thrives.
The pressure will be intense, with his every pass, kick and tackle – he missed 10 in game two in Melbourne – closely scrutinised.
But rugby league is his drug of choice. The intoxicating cauldron of Origin football, with the highest of highs and lowest of lows, is something he cannot get enough of.
“There are such great things and great feelings, but then if you fall short, it’s so disappointing,” Cleary says. “It’s that rollercoaster of emotions. But it’s what keeps bringing me back, I reckon. It’s the joys of professional sport. You never know what you’re going to get. It’s just about applying yourself to do your best.”
Seldom do Origin series follow the same trajectory. While this series might be locked at 1-1, Queensland have been the more potent outfit.
But the beauty of Origin is how quickly things can swing. The Blues know that. Queensland know that. While the heat is on the Maroons to put NSW to the sword in their own backyard, beware the underdog.
“If it works out, it works out,” Cleary says. “Let’s hope so.”
Either way, by about 10pm on Wednesday, Cleary will know one thing: he’ll be the hero or the villain.
