Why Cleary isn't fazed by final frontier narrative
Cleary, 27, has won four premierships in a row, has claimed the Clive Churchill Medal twice, won a World Cup and has been a part of three successful Origin campaigns.
He's on track to smash several NRL records and has been the main man in the most dominant team of the modern era, yet there are people who still point to his Origin record and wonder whether he deserves to be in the Immortal conversation.
Cleary has a 7-7 record for NSW and has played just one match for his state since the start of 2023, with serious hamstring injuries plaguing him and forcing him to miss the epic comeback win last year.
The champion halfback has heard the chat and accepts that it will follow him around throughout this year's series, but he says it won't define him as he looks to make up for lost time.
'I think that's the way it's probably shaped sometimes, and I do want to play better at Origin level,' he said.
'But I'm not shaping it as a final frontier.
'There's still a lot of my rugby league life to live. I want to keep getting better. This Origin journey is in front of me right now, so I want to attack that as best I can.
'I think I've just got to prove it to my teammates, especially after watching last year and seeing how well they did.
'You've just got to capitalise and do the same again.
'It's about proving myself to my teammates and showing that I'm meant to be here, and I'm confident that I can get the job done.
'At the end of the day, it's not about me. It's about this team, so I want to put my best foot forward for the whole week and then be at my best come game day.'
Blues skipper and Cleary's co-captain at the Panthers, Isaah Yeo, knows Cleary better than most.
It's why he's backing the gifted playmaker to use the criticism as motivation, with Yeo just happy to see Cleary back in the sky blue jersey after so many cruel setbacks.
'I don't know if he'd give it much thought, but if he does, I'm sure it'd fuel the fire a bit,' the veteran lock said.
'You know how much the jersey means to him. You only have to look back at when he did his hammy before the series last year and how shattered he was.
'I feel like he's so ready for this moment. It's been building for a few years, so I'm excited to see him back in this environment because I know what he brings to a team and how much confidence he'll give the group.'
Cleary's next challenge will be working alongside Mitchell Moses in the halves, with the Eels star edging Jarome Luai for the five-eighth spot.
Luai and Cleary have carved up for the Panthers and Blues in the past, but Cleary is excited about the new combination even though both men are chief playmakers at club level and prefer to play on the right.
Both players have spoken about being willing to step back if the other guy is in control, with Cleary's crucial tries against Brisbane showing that he can do some of his best work on the left.
'I think we both understand the game really well and I think we can use that to our advantage for what's needed at the right time and to stand up in the right moments,' said Cleary, who should start on the right given his combination with Liam Martin and Stephen Crichton.
'At the end of the day, it's about what's right for the team. It's not letting egos get in the way, we've got to complement each other and get the best out of each other.
'I don't mind, and the way it should work is that we can roam around and see how that works. I think both of us are quite capable of playing left or right.'
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The final outcome might suggest otherwise, but they will surely remember Euro 2025 as a significant moment in the development of women's football in the country. The 2023 World Cup arrived amid a battle between the players and the Spanish football federation, the RFEF, that had been brewing for some time and exploded in September 2022 after the last Euros. The players were demanding minimum conditions that would allow them to perform at their best. They became particularly aware of this with the professionalisation of club teams, led by Barcelona, and saw the difference between playing domestically and internationally. For many of them, playing for the national team was like a trip back in time. What did they mean by that? Well, everything. The players wanted better. They wanted to go to competitions in good time to ensure recovery from the journey and avoid it affecting the first match. They wanted to travel in the most comfortable conditions possible to avoid fatigue. They wanted a nutritionist, analysis of their opponents and themselves, enough friendly matches to prepare, physical trainers, more physios, optimal training-ground conditions and elite training. They felt other teams already had all of this and that it put them at a disadvantage when they faced them. Because when talent was equal, the best-prepared team won. Another issue was the hotels. They were always isolated, far from the venues hosting the matches in each competition. Advertisement 'We hardly had any friendly matches, we were staying in hotels located in industrial estates next to petrol stations… we didn't have the same facilities as other teams to recover quickly, and we had fairly limited staff,' former player Veronica Boquete told The Athletic about the 2013 Euros. Years later, that situation had not improved in line with the developments in the women's game. In 2022, the team travelled to Marlow, a small town west of London. For the 2023 World Cup, they were based in Palmerston North, a city in the middle of New Zealand's North Island, far from all the venues. After the group stage, they had to move to Wellington because there were concerns that the condition of the pitch could cause injuries and the facilities proved to be inadequate. This summer, the RFEF decided to base the team in Lausanne, a beautiful city with a lake in the centre of Switzerland, close to all venues. The location was convenient for transport and the players felt so comfortable that after each match, they asked to spend the night there instead of in a hotel in the city where they were playing — Bern, Thun, Zurich — except for the day of the final in Basel. The training ground chosen, the Juan-Antonio-Samaranch Stadium, is one of the best available in Switzerland and the same is true of their chosen hotel, the Hotel Royal Savoy. The RFEF requested that vinyl stickers be placed throughout the hotel where the players would be staying so they would feel at home and know how to get to where they needed to go. They also travelled with a chef and, for the first time, a maitre d'. The facilities included a room to help players who are mothers, such as Irene Paredes, balance their family life. It was also useful for Alba Redondo and her stepdaughter. It was a small room with children's games and a table and chairs for children, close to the dining room where families could eat in peace and where players who needed to could congregate after each meal to be with their little ones. Advertisement Patri Guijarro is the yardstick for measuring the level of improvement. She was one of 15 players who asked not to be selected in September 2022 and did return to play in the World Cup. She did not want to come back until the conditions were optimal, until the improvement was real. For the 2024 Olympics and this European Championship, she decided she was satisfied the change had taken place. She returned, becoming one of the best players in the tournament. 'Now we have the perfect food, we recover better with more physios, a psychologist, comfortable travel, a gym in all the facilities… those details also make a difference on the pitch,' Guijarro said in an interview with El Mundo a few weeks ago. 'I remember that in England (Euro 2022), the food was always the same. When you're at the top, those details matter.' At Euro 2025 — and for the first time — two doctors and six physiotherapists travelled with the team, along with seven people from the communications department, one from ticketing and another from fan experience. The improvement is dramatic and it is keenly felt. 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They showed their strengths, with a midfield that knows each other perfectly, Aitana Bonmati, Guijarro and Alexia Putellas setting the pace for an enthusiastic team in attack. Defensively, there were some weaknesses but ultimately it took a penalty shootout to defeat them. Now, the players can rest. Their fight for better conditions has been admirable from the outside but devastating from the inside. Three years after it began, they can say it was worth it. The song chosen as the soundtrack for the Euros in the Spain dressing room was 'El principio de algo' (the beginning of something) by Spanish band La La Love You. And that's what this Euros feels like for Spain, the beginning of something. Even if they lost the final.
