As a goal kicking fullback though, I can't blame him for leaving because we already had Matthew Ridge.
Funny thing is he went to Norths to be their goal kicking fullback ... only they then went and signed Jason Taylor so there went the goal kicking duties, and then Cleary got injured in the 1994 pre-season which saw Matt Seers emerge as their fullback and so coach Peter Louis played him at centre for 2 years. So what he signed to do, he never did at Norths. It took going to Easts under Gus Gould from 1996 for him to be a full time goal kicking fullback.
IIRC, it was mentioned about him playing centre at Manly while we had Ridge, but Cleary rejected the idea saying he wanted to play fullback. Then it turned out he would play 2 years at centre anyway.....