Cleary has played 5 Origins. In those games he has produced 0 line breaks, 0 line break assists, 0 tries and 0 try assists.
From a first choice state representative halfback, that is somewhat pathetic. After one game you could maybe put it down to stage fright. But after 5 games......
Wade Graham, better known as a second rower these days, had better attacking stats from one half of Origin football playing in the halves than Nathan Cleary had done in his 4 1/2 games on the field.
I kept on getting Penrith fans on Facebook claiming that "oh but his defence was great". Yeah, so what? DCE's defence is as good and he scores tries, gets line breaks and sets up his supports to do those as well. Hell, even Pearce and Ben Hunt did that and they still got canned for their performances at halfback. Yet Cleary hasn't done anything other than showing good defence and goal kicking and somehow he is seen as the first choice halfback???
100% agree that his greatest contribution was to stay out of Maloney's way. That and his goal kicking.
You know, if lock hadn't basically morphed into being a 3rd prop for the front rowers with the best skills and biggest motor (e.g. Jake), Cleary would probably have made a half decent older style lock (think Ian Martin late in his career) who could play like an extra 5/8 with his passing and kicking game. But these days he's a halfback, and IMO not a very good one. At least, he's nowhere near good enough that he should be considered the first choice half for a team at the level of State of Origin.
