Nathan Cleary stands on the precipice of rugby league immortality and his superstar girlfriend Mary Fowler has send a public message of support to help him grab it.
Cleary is set to overcome a shoulder complaint picked up in the Penrith Panthers’ preliminary final win over the Cronulla Sharks to lead his side into their fourth consecutive NRL grand final on Sunday.
The Panthers have already won the last three deciders and can create even more history with a fourth against the Melbourne Storm at Accor Stadium.
Fowler knows a thing or two about big games as well, helping steer the Matildas to a historic final four position at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in the absence of injured star and captain Sam Kerr.
In a simple post on Instagram, she posted a four sentence message to her beau that read:
‘Be yourself
so the people
looking for you
can find you.’
‘Not long to go Mary until our boy is the 4 time champ,’ one of her followers posted.
‘Nothing like young love,’ added another.
Fowler has sent a touching message of support to her boyfriend Nathan Cleary ahead of the NRL grand final on Sunday
The heartfelt message came as Cleary prepares for a grand final showdown against the Melbourne Storm where Penrith can record a historic fourth consecutive premiership
It comes after Cleary admitted on the Channel Nine Marlee and Me podcast that he is adopting a similar approach to his relationship with Fowler that he did to football.
‘It’s the next day for me, it’s the next day of how can I be a better person, how can I be a better player, how can I just get better?’
‘It’s probably a mindset I have a lot is finding ways to get better. A lot of the time it’s the little incremental gains over a long period of time. They turn to big gains.
‘That is my mindset rather than so much accolades or achievements.’
‘That’s just as much off the field as it is on it. I do believe that if you’re improving yourself as a person, then it comes out in your footy as well.’
Fowler and Cleary have been an item since late 2023 as exclusively revealed by Daily Mail Austalia
Meanwhile, Melbourne captain Harry Grant has revealed the Storm won’t go after Cleary’s shoulder in the premiership decider.
In the 2018 grand final the Storm got distracted by Sydney Roosters No.7 Cooper Cronk, who went into the Accor Stadium match with a fractured shoulder blade.
Their former teammate marshalled the Roosters to an emphatic 21-6 victory.
While Grant wasn’t part of that Melbourne line-up, he said his team wouldn’t make the same mistake in Sunday’s showdown.
Cleary missed three games after falling on his left shoulder against the Storm in round 24, returning for the finals, and he appeared to aggravate the joint ‘instability’ late in Saturday’s 26-6 preliminary final win over Cronulla.
Cleary seemed untroubled by his shoulder complaint as he took selfies with fans at a training session ahead of the NRL grand final
But with Cleary dominant since his return, including providing three try assists against the Sharks, Grant said the halfback had proven he could carry his injury without it affecting his contribution.
‘We don’t need to focus on one player, on Nathan and his shoulder,’ Grant said on Monday.
‘I think he’s shown in recent weeks, in recent years, the class player he is and how he performs, whether he’s under a bit of an injury cloud or not, in these big games.
‘He’s shown that in the last few weeks through his performances, and we won’t expect anything different, so we’re not going out to target him or handle him any differently than we normally would.’
While only Cameron Munster, Christian Welch and the suspended Nelson Asofa-Solomona remain from the 2018 grand final team, Melbourne’s own star No.7 Jahrome Hughes said going after Cleary would come at a cost.
‘I think if we focus too much on him and his injury, then I think that’s not going to go well for us,’ Hughes said.
‘A few of the boys played in the ’18 grand final and they bring up that they probably focused on Cooper too much, more than they needed to, and it probably came back to bite them.
‘We’ve fully learned from that as a club, and we probably won’t be looking at that too much and be more focusing on what we could do as a team to be better.’
