Nathan Cleary act comes to light after Test player brutally axed by Panthers

Yahoo

4 days ago

Casey McLean has revealed the conversation he had with Nathan Cleary after being axed by the Penrith Panthers that spurred him to return with a bang for the defending premiers. McLean was so highly-rated that he made his Test debut for New Zealand last year, but hasn't lived up to his lofty expectations in 2025.
The 19-year-old has made a number of costly blunders, most notably failing to pass to winger Tom Jenkins for what would have been the match-winning try against the Cowboys in Round 5. That came after he was dropped to reserve grade in Round 4, and he then spent another three weeks out of the first-grade team between Round 9-11.
He was recalled to NRL level in Round 12 against the Knights, and scored in the Panthers' 18-10 victory over Parramatta last weekend. Tellingly, he backed himself and threw a dummy that Test winger Zac Lomax fell for as he scored a crucial try in the first half.
Rather than second-guess himself after copping criticism for failing to pass on a number of occasions this year, McLean knew the dummy was on this time and fooled the Eels defenders. Speaking on Tuesday, the teenager opened up on some words of wisdom he received from Cleary after his most recent axing.
"He just says it's a journey. Not everything's going to be highs, so you've got to ride the lows as well," McLean said. "It's just all learning, you can't take things as negatives. You've got to take everything as a positive, find ways to improve, move forward and this (win over the Eels) showcases what happens, I suppose."
McLean said the playing group had an honesty session when Cleary and others were absent for State of Origin 1. The Panthers were missing Cleary, Dylan Edwards, Isaah Yeo, Liam Martin and Brian To'o when they were thrashed by the lowly Knights in Round 12.
But hooker Mitch Kenny and the remaining senior players convened the squad for some tough love before the Eels game. "All of us got together... and put the line in the sand, what needs to be better, especially standards-wise," McLean revealed. "It was a player-driven thing. All the boys kind of knew what needed to happen."
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The four-time reigning premiers had slumped to last place on the ladder before the Parramatta game. Had they lost to the Eels it would have marked the latest point in a season since 1953 that a defending premier was last. But the win saw them leap-frog the Knights, Eels and Titans, and they're only three points behind Manly in seventh.
"Just flip that switch at training, just training habits and things like that led into what happened (against the Eels)," McLean said. Star halfback Cleary noticed the lift in intensity on his return from Origin duties.
"A few of the boys were talking about how hard the week at training had been," he said. "Maybe that's where we'd been lacking, just dropping our standards a little bit. I thought young guys like Casey were really good."
with AAP