Nathan Cleary in a Storm jersey?
Surprisingly, nearly ten years ago, there were discussions about it happening.
Ahead of Sunday’s mouth-watering decider between Cleary’s Panthers and the Storm, the star halfback has revealed that Melbourne were circling him when he was playing his trade for the Penrith under-20s.
Opening up to News Corp, Cleary said there were whispers about the Storm’s interest in 2015 and 2016 following Penrith’s sacking of dad Ivan at the end of the 2015 season.
“I remember there were whispers but nothing concrete,” Cleary said.
“I was pretty committed to staying at Penrith, I didn’t want to go anywhere else.”
When Penrith sacked Ivan Cleary as coach, it triggered a clause in Nathan’s contract with the Panthers that could allow the then teen sensation to sign with another club.
Melbourne’s head of football Frank Ponissi explained that the Storm were “certainly interested” in the young half with Cooper Cronk’s career winding down.
However, Cleary was keen to stay put in Penrith and continue playing with many of the stars he’s since helped build a dynasty with and in 2016, he inked a contract extension to stay at the foot of the mountains.
“His manager rang me and said, ‘Little heads up, there is a clause in his contract’. We were certainly interested but it didn’t work out. Then I remember watching him play his first NRL game against us in Melbourne,” Ponissi told News Corp.
“We thought he was going to be a good player, but in fairness no-one thought he was going to be the player he is today.”
As it turned out, after an inglorious two-year stint with the Tigers, Ivan Cleary would return to Penrith in 2019 to link up with his son, guiding the Panthers to the first of three straight titles two years later.
