Former Warrington Wolves player and NRL great Andrew Johns has linked the Super League club with a bold move for Penrith Panthers’ star Nathan Cleary.

Cleary is widely regarded as the greatest player in the NRL with a whopping four Grand Final titles to his name but despite his status as one of the game’s greats, he has regularly been linked with a move to Super League.

The major reason for that is because his long-term partner Mary Fowler plays football for Manchester City and Johns has now claimed that given Cleary has won all there is to win in Australia, he could well test himself in Super League so that he can be closer to Fowler.

Adding to that, he’s said that Warrington Wolves owner Simon Moran would ‘move heaven and earth’ to sign a player such as Cleary, with Johns having a strong relationship with the Wire owner.

Jazz Tevaga’s sin-bin, Hull KR’s underrated star and very early Man of Steel candidates – Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show.

Warrington Wolves linked to extraordinary Nathan Cleary move

Speaking on NRL on Nine, Johns outlined his argument in reference to whether or not Nathan Cleary would make the switch to the incoming NRL side the PNG Chiefs.

The Chiefs will enter the NRL in 2028 and will be coached by Willie Peters who is tasked with building a squad from scratch. Helping him in that task is the fact that wages paid to Chiefs players will be exempt from taxation, something that is obviously very lucrative – but not so for Cleary, in the eyes of Johns.

“Nathan doesn’t play for money, he plays because he loves the game and he respects the game. He wouldn’t go to the PNG Chiefs purely for money, I know it’s a huge incentive,” Johns said, before outlining how and where Warrington Wolves could come into the equation.

He added: “There’s talk of Warrington. I know the owner there, Simon Moran, and he would move heaven and earth to get Nathan there. And also to mentor – they have a young half-back called Ewan Irwin, who looks special.

“They’d love to get him there to work with their young half. If anyone can get it done in England, it’s Simon Moran in rugby league.”

Johns has previously been very complimentary of Irwin who was part of Warrington Wolves’ academy tour of Australia where the former NRL great coached a session and was highly impressed by the teenage half.

Adding to the argument that Cleary could make a Super League switch, Johns said: “I’d think he wants to be near his partner, Mary Fowler, the long distance would be difficult on them both. He’s done everything here.”