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Cleary v Ponga

McLovin

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
33,899
Maloney has been rubbish for a couple of years now. This is all on the development of Cleary. I think he can easily surpass Johns' achievements. Maybe not his 'legacy'...

Cleary at 20 years of age will have played more origins that Johns at 20 years of age, thus giving him the lead at this stage.
 

Noname36

First Grade
Messages
7,067
Maloney has been rubbish for a couple of years now. This is all on the development of Cleary. I think he can easily surpass Johns' achievements. Maybe not his 'legacy'...

Cleary at 20 years of age will have played more origins that Johns at 20 years of age, thus giving him the lead at this stage.

Lol stop it.
 

mxlegend99

Referee
Messages
23,093
Lol, another year, another young player that people say will be better than Joey...they never are, and while Cleary is a great young player he hasn’t shown anything to indicate he will be either. Neither will Ponga.

I don’t even think Johns holds any records, but he’s still seen as the best by most.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Cleary is a great young player, but people crediting him solely for the Panthers success...it gives zero credit to Maloney who is IMO a much better and more dominate player at this stage.
I was stirring. I thought the trolling was obvious. 20 times better than Joey? It's clearly going to be 25 times better than the greatest ever halfback. :p

The quote of mine you posted was one line of an extremely long post that basically said Cleary will be 10 times the player Joey is in comparison to the shit around him.

Todays quality of halves as a whole is terrible compared to the talent when Joey was playing. If he played today he would look like 100 times the player he did back then.
 

Frederick

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
27,542
Judging a players capabilities on a bad team is silly. Someone has to get the stats. That player just happens to be Ponga. Last year it was Ross.. year before, probably Ross again. You get the point.

Cleary has already proven he can lead his teams (club and state) to wins. Penrith sitting comfortably in the top 4

Let's list the qualities required to be a top line spine player and compare the two;

1. Leadership - Cleary
2. Passing game - Ponga
3. Kicking game - Cleary
4. Organisational skills - Cleary
5. Maturity - Cleary
6. Ability to garner wins for the team - Cleary

As you can see, Cleary is the winner in just about every facet.
Cleary has been doing it all behind the most dominant forward pack in the competition. Put him behind the knights pack and he would struggle big time
 

mxlegend99

Referee
Messages
23,093
Maloney has been rubbish for a couple of years now. This is all on the development of Cleary. I think he can easily surpass Johns' achievements. Maybe not his 'legacy'...

Cleary at 20 years of age will have played more origins that Johns at 20 years of age, thus giving him the lead at this stage.
Cleary is playing Origin at the same age Cooper Cronk was when making his NRL debut as a utility for Storm.

Hes not even close to fully developed yet. But at 20 years of age he has played in 3 consecutive finals series in the most important position in the team and is an Origin player.

He's behind many great players at the same age. But he's also ahead of plenty aswell. He came in immediately as the starting halfback in an NRL team and didn't miss a game til being injured almost 2 years later.

His halves partners include Jamie Soward, Bryce Cartwright, Tyrone Peachey, Te Maire Martin, Matt Moylan, Tyrone May and James Maloney. In his short NRL career half his games were played with Bryce Cartwright at 6. Yet he goes about his business and is on track to play September for a third year in a row. This time with an experienced 6 who has played in 3 grand finals
 

Noname36

First Grade
Messages
7,067
I was stirring. I thought the trolling was obvious. 20 times better than Joey? It's clearly going to be 25 times better than the greatest ever halfback. :p

The quote of mine you posted was one line of an extremely long post that basically said Cleary will be 10 times the player Joey is in comparison to the shit around him.

Todays quality of halves as a whole is terrible compared to the talent when Joey was playing. If he played today he would look like 100 times the player he did back then.

Ah apologies, my sarcasm defender obviously wasn’t working haha

We Knights supporters are very sensitive when it comes to Joey. People can say whatever shit they want about Ponga but we lose it when it comes to Joey lol
 

McLovin

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
33,899
Cleary is playing Origin at the same age Cooper Cronk was when making his NRL debut as a utility for Storm.

Hes not even close to fully developed yet. But at 20 years of age he has played in 3 consecutive finals series in the most important position in the team and is an Origin player.

He's behind many great players at the same age. But he's also ahead of plenty aswell. He came in immediately as the starting halfback in an NRL team and didn't miss a game til being injured almost 2 years later.

His halves partners include Jamie Soward, Bryce Cartwright, Tyrone Peachey, Te Maire Martin, Matt Moylan, Tyrone May and James Maloney. In his short NRL career half his games were played with Bryce Cartwright at 6. Yet he goes about his business and is on track to play September for a third year in a row. This time with an experienced 6 who has played in 3 grand finals

Fair assessment. A 20 year old doing what he is doing at the rate he is doing it is unheard of in todays game. Rivaled only by maybe Valentine Holmes in terms of achievements at such a young age. Hopefully he plays injury free as his career trajectory is headed straight into immortal class. Those that don't see this either don't like the bloke or just don't know footy.
 

TheFrog

Coach
Messages
14,300
I don’t have time to look for the others now but this one was a gem lol
MX tends to get carried away, you have to take him with a grain of salt sometimes. Besides, he was making a prediction for the future, rather than saying Cleary is better now.
 

Noname36

First Grade
Messages
7,067
Cleary did nothing in that game.

There’s nothing special to him at all, most overrated player in the game.

NSW won that game because Smith, Thurston and Cronk that had been carrying Qld for a decade all pretty much retired together.

NSW would have still lost all the games they did during the Smith/Cronk/Slater/Thurston peak regardless of whether Pearce or Cleary was wearing the #7.
 

soc123_au

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
18,796
Cleary is exceptional for a halfback his age, but Ponga is a deadset genius.

The way I see it, of the young talents in the game we have:

God level: Radley

Genius level: Latrell & Ponga

Bae Level: Cotric

Outstanding Level: Cleary
Not bad, but I dont think you are giving Radley the praise he deserves. I heard God has a poster of him in his bedroom & kneels before it to pray before he kicks off the bunny slippers and crashes for the night.


Then he masturbates while thinking about Cotric.
 

phatnonphatness

Juniors
Messages
22
I think the comparison is a little fairer than people care to admit considering Ponga plays like a 6 and is likely destined to move there long term (like Moylan but successful).

But Cleary has proven he is better. At least, right now.
 

Life's Good

Coach
Messages
13,971
Not bad, but I dont think you are giving Radley the praise he deserves. I heard God has a poster of him in his bedroom & kneels before it to pray before he kicks off the bunny slippers and crashes for the night.


Then he masturbates while thinking about Cotric.

As if God has a bedroom.
 

Dave_

Juniors
Messages
2,330
Cleary is exceptional for a halfback his age, but Ponga is a deadset genius.

The way I see it, of the young talents in the game we have:

God level: Radley

Genius level: Latrell & Ponga

Bae Level: Cotric

Outstanding Level: Cleary
Lol...Radley doesn't rate along side those others
 
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