{"id":200645,"date":"2025-10-09T15:11:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T15:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/200645\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T15:11:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T15:11:04","slug":"mat-rogers-makes-bold-call-about-nathan-cleary-and-mitch-moses-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/200645\/","title":{"rendered":"Mat Rogers makes bold call about Nathan Cleary and Mitch Moses battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mat Rogers has thrown his support behind Mitchell Moses in the race for Australia\u2019s No.7 jersey, claiming the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/parramatta-eels\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Parramatta Eels<\/a> star should start ahead of four-time premiership winner Nathan Cleary in the upcoming Ashes series.<\/p>\n<p>With Kangaroos coach Kevin Walters spoilt for choice between State of Origin pairings, the battle between Cleary, Cameron Munster, Moses and Tom Dearden is shaping up as one of the most intriguing selection calls of the tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But Rogers, speaking on SEN1170\u2019s Sportsday, believes Cleary\u2019s achievements don\u2019t automatically make him the best fit for the role.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/could-2026-be-last-stand-melbournes-premier-core\/ae6236427940dbc29787b384\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Could 2026 be the last stand for Melbourne&#8217;s premier core?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Mitch Moses is a better player\u2019: Rogers<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like Mitch Moses as a halfback better than I like Nathan Cleary as a halfback,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cI\u2019m a huge Nathan Cleary fan, I\u2019m not a Nathan Cleary hater by any stretch. Cleary has won four premierships, he is a freak and a gun, but I think Mitch Moses is a better player. [Moses] has a better kicking game, a better running game, a better passing game, and I just think he is the best player running around at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rogers even compared Cleary\u2019s potential selection dilemma to that of Andrew Johns in 1998, when the legendary halfback was forced to play hooker for the Kangaroos.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI played a number of Tests with Andrew Johns where he was forced into hooker, even though he was the best halfback in the game,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n<p>The dual-code international went on to say he would opt for Cameron Munster at five-eighth, Moses at halfback, and Dearden as utility cover on the bench. \u201cThis isn\u2019t an every player gets a prize situation,\u201d Rogers added. \u201cYou pick the best man.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mat Rogers has thrown his support behind Mitchell Moses in the race for Australia\u2019s No.7 jersey, claiming the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-200645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}