But, while he has dominated the NRL and international arena for Penrith and Australia, he has yet to do the same for the NSW Blues in State of Origin.<\/p>\n
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Yes, he has won three series (2018, 2019 and 2021) with the Blues, but he has never emerged as the key piece of the state\u2019s success and instead played second fiddle to other options in the squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cNathan is the ultimate professional. He\u2019s a sports nut, so he follows the NBA (and) NFL. He watches sport globally and he wants to be the best,\u201d former ten-time Blues representative Braith Anasta said on NRL 360. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll leave our game, the NRL. This is going to be the only thing hanging over his shoulders now until he dominates at this level. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople may argue he is good at Origin and he\u2019s a great Origin player. He\u2019s the first one picked and no one doubts that he\u2019s a very good player but it\u2019s still that dominance (that he has yet to achieve). <\/p>\n
\u201cI know he wants to dominate a series and get man of the match and wants to carry NSW to victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already considered one of the best players to ever play in the NRL, there have been calls that if Cleary is able to dominate for the Blues during the 2026 State of Origin series, he can be widely considered an Immortal in waiting.<\/p>\n
The remarkable comeback of Tom Flegler | 07:08<\/p>\n
This would see him join the likes of Andrew Johns, Cameron Smith and Wally Lewis as the greatest to ever lace up their boots.<\/p>\n
Code Sports\u2019 journalist Brent Read said, \u201cI think he just has to own a series. I think it\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has his moments, but he hasn\u2019t been the hands-down dominant player in a NSW series win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all talking about his future\u2026but that\u2019s the one thing that he hasn\u2019t done so if he does that I wonder if he sits down and thinks about maybe going to the Super League. Maybe he switches codes. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to be remembered as a great player regardless of what he does there [Origin arena] but that\u2019s immortality. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s becoming an Immortal. If you dominate Origin and tick that off the list, then the Immortal debate\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Was jumping up and down inside’ | 05:02<\/p>\n
This comes as Cleary is facing an uncertain future as he prepares to test the open market on November 1 and could also potential move to either the Super League or 15-man code in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got to dominate Origin to be considered an Immortal and we all believe Nathan will get there,\u201d fellow Code Sports\u2019 journalist Dean Ritchie added.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has won a couple of series but he\u2019s never dominated a game three decider and that bugs Nathan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know his commitment, we know his skill level but he just hasn\u2019t been able to get the job done. Some people say that he\u2019s a system player and inside the Penrith system, he dominates. <\/p>\n
\u201cOut of that system, he might not go to levels that we think he can\u2019t attain. I might not agree with that but that\u2019s the speculation out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A four-time premiership winner, three-time Dally M Halfback of the Year, World Cup winner and Clive Churchill Medallist,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-678481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678481","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=678481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}