Standing in a again nook of the NSW sheds after Wednesday night’s hellish defeat, Nathan Cleary was a shell of a person.
He spent 20 minutes stewing on the sport together with his dad and mom, Ivan and Rebecca, then agreed to take some questions from a huddle of reporters.
Inevitably, the Blues halfback was requested about that nagging narrative.
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“There’s this debate about whether or not you have owned the Origin area,” one reporter mentioned.
“Is it unfair?”
Cleary may have defended himself. As a substitute, he agreed with the critics.
“On the finish of the day, I have not [owned the Origin area],” mentioned Cleary, Penrith’s four-time premiership-winning halfback.
Nathan Cleary on Wednesday evening. Getty
“I am the harshest marker of myself anyway.
“I do not actually assume what different individuals say is out of line as a result of I in all probability assume that of myself anyway.”
Cleary did not need to delve into what went fallacious in Sydney — “I am not 100 per cent certain [just yet]” — however he was definitely already racking his mind.
“I will positively mirror, and it is kind of already occurring in my mind in the meanwhile,” the 27-year-old mentioned.
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“[I’m] simply attempting to work out what occurred.”
A 20-year-old Cleary was the NSW halfback for all three video games of the 2018 collection, received by the Blues within the first two matches.
In 2021, the Blues once more wrapped up the collection within the first two matches, and Cleary was the halfback.
However the jury continues to be out on whether or not the champion No.7, regardless of his collection wins, has stamped his authority on the Origin stage, and his critics have by no means been louder than they’re following the 24-12 defeat in Sydney.
On the identical evening Cleary did not steer the Blues to victory at house, the 27-year-old’s reverse quantity, 24-year-old Tom Dearden, was awarded each man of the match and man of the collection.
In doing so, the Cowboys gun could have received himself the No.7 jumper for the Ashes late within the 12 months.
“On the finish of the day, you simply really feel such as you’ve let down the boys that you just performed with, and the state clearly. That is what hurts essentially the most,” Cleary mentioned.
“And I let down myself, [and I have] excessive requirements.”
He is the Blues’ longest-serving present participant, and on Wednesday evening performed his seventeenth Origin recreation to surpass the match tallies of former NSW halfbacks Andrew Johns and Mitchell Pearce.
He admitted it pained him understanding the Blues wouldn’t get one other shot at redemption for 12 months.
“I feel it is nearly rising from it, not kicking stones however rising, and looking for methods to get higher,” he mentioned.
“The irritating factor about rugby league is you’re feeling such as you’ve learnt classes earlier than however then there’s at all times knew classes to study. No rugby league is ever the identical. It is continually evolving and you have to evolve your recreation and that is the place I am at.”
