Jane Murray
Bench
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Cleary is doing well, but mentioning him alongside Thurston does him no favours.
Aside from Thurston being one of the all time greats, I think their styles are quite different.
And he is only 22 years young.It was Tamou that said that and he was comparing their competitiveness not their style or ability etc
Nathan has exceeded even my expectations this season. There were signs last season that Nathan might go to another level once he was out from under Jimmy's wing but he has really owned the side when he has played this year. He is a real controlling half and he shown a lot more creativity and a little more ball playing than previous seasons, its been great(besides that tik tok shit) to see himm playing with such confidence and developing into a top notch half back.
It was Tamou that said that and he was comparing their competitiveness not their style or ability etc
Don't know about "up in arms" when Jimmy left - The main voice was saying it was a good time for him to move on, and that Cleary would flourish with more responisibity, which with the limited sample size, appears to be true. A few people saw this coming with Oldy/Westy being one of the major voices.
Which, as you rightly imply, is generally a bad thing. But Cleary has shown in the past that he can't be held to such common assumptions. The way this young bloke handles pressure is phenomenal, and I personally think any pressure placed on him would only serve to increase his desire to become better.Fair point, but I still don’t think it does him any good to mention him alongside JT. That only increases the pressure.
Which, as you rightly imply, is generally a bad thing. But Cleary has shown in the past that he can't be held to such common assumptions. The way this young bloke handles pressure is phenomenal, and I personally think any pressure placed on him would only serve to increase his desire to become better.
I was confident and vocal in my belief we would see Cleary step up when he didnt have a senior playmaker to try working with.
He proved multiple times that he could run the team well when we were missing Moylan and then Maloney. He was happy to let the senior experienced playmakers run the team and do his best to work with them.
He got slammed for it despite fans on here wanting him to do that very thing. His first few games with Jimmy when Nathan ran the show he was in good form and Jimmy wasn't. Nathan gets injured. Jimmy steps up while hes out and people call for Nathan to do exactly what he did as it was in the best interest of the team.
The mistake we made with Maloney & Cleary was not having Maloney in charge. Instead we had this two sides of the field business. Maloney should’ve been first receiver as much as possible.
Cleary was still learning the game, better to have him stand back a little and let the experience run the show. Our record when Maloney played 7 was exceptional.
Maloney gets a lot of criticism here, but he had 10 games at halfback and we only lost 2.
Does he? I thought it was just his defence that was laughable.
I’ve seen a fair bit. And some others saying Cleary & Maloney didn’t work well together. The problem was more how they were used together.
I have said that before BUT my point was always that Nathan was taking a step back for the dominant personality to be in control. What you've suggested just before would've fixed the issue of a dominant/submissive halves pairing trying to control each side of the field.
He came in and it was Moylans team. He had a chance to step up once Moylan left. His first couple games with Jimmy he was among our best. Jimmy was terrible. He got injured and Jimmy took over and performed better without Cleary in the team. Jimmy just worked best when he ran the team.Im not sure he took a step back, it was mostly the same way we played before Maloney came. (the period where Moylan played 5/8) But I do think Maloney should’ve led the team around the park.