Other NRL coaches go postal. For Ivan Cleary, a cocked eyebow is enough

Des Hasler rips a door clean off its hinges. Ricky Stuart makes the paint peel from the walls. Even the usually unflappable Craig Fitzgibbon unleashes a right hook on an innocent computer monitor.

And then there is Ivan Cleary, the Yoda of the clipboard brigade. When rugby league conspires against you, as it often does – whether it be a handling error, a dud referee call or an unkind bounce of the ball – it is enough to send a coach postal.

Through all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that make up an NRL season, Cleary somehow maintains his equanimity. Where other coaches spray their players, a cocked eyebrow or a quiet word from Cleary often suffices. There is no need to scream to command a dressing room when stillness is his strength.

“He sprays you nicely,” is the way former Penrith playmaker James Maloney once put it.

But does the cool, collected and composed Cleary ever lose his rag? Does the ice that runs through his veins ever boil? Is there a blow-up in him?

“Nope,” said Panthers forward Luke Garner. “I don’t know how he does it, to be honest with you. He’s got a good temperament. Sometimes the coaches, you can ride the wave with them, but he’s always pretty cool, so keeps us pretty calm.”

Told that we would keep digging elsewhere for a Cleary spray story, Garner grinned: “Yeah, good luck.”

Turns out they are difficult to find.

“I’ve certainly seen it,” said hooker Mitch Kenny. “Everyone’s got the capacity to get a little emotional, but it’s not really him. It’s probably a little bit more disappointed, not angry, and that’s worse.”

Jack Cole, who will play alongside Nathan Cleary for Sunday’s finals clash against the Roosters at CommBank Stadium, wasn’t able to add much.

“Sometimes he raises his voice and stuff,” Cole said. “He doesn’t really get angry.”

Of course, Cleary is human and there are a couple of notable exceptions. The most recent occurred in round six last year. After winning their season-opener against Cronulla at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, the Panthers couldn’t crack it for another victory when they headed to Suncorp Stadium to face the Dolphins.

Cleary had kept his poise through the rough patch. But with the season slipping away after copping a fifth straight loss – the ’Phins prevailed 30-12 – there was no more Mr Nice Guy.

“I think it was just a bit of a shock to everyone,” forward Isaiah Papali’i said. “He’s quite calm, cool, and collected, so I think it was more just an overall spray to the whole team. At that point in the season, it had been rough, so I think it was warranted.”

Casey McLean had a night to forget against the Dolphins, and remembers being on the end of a rare bake. Even then, the NSW centre qualifies it by saying it was “not like a full spray.”

“He’s so laid-back, cool, calm,” McLean said. “Seeing him flare up a little bit more than usual kind of shocked me. But it’s cool.”

Asked if he copped more “disappointed dad vibes” as opposed to a genuine dressing down, McLean said: “It was a bit of both! He gave me the disappointed eyes, like ‘What are you doing?’ But then also gave me a little rally up. It’s the best of both worlds if you think about it like that … When you see him, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve definitely done something wrong!’

“ … He’s a one-of-a-kind coach. He has what, 500 games under his belt just recently, four premierships. He’s done so much for the game, and not just for myself as a player. I think he’s helped me as a person more than anything, so I couldn’t be more grateful to be under him.”

The art of a good spray is knowing when not to deliver one. Several premiership-winning coaches maintain that, for it to have any effect, it can’t be delivered more than once per season, otherwise it will lose its impact.

Cleary’s stern words after the Dolphins loss had the desired effect; the following week, the Panthers put 40 points on the Roosters.

It’s not to say that players escape criticism. It would have been impossible for the Panthers to win four titles since 2021 if they weren’t able to have difficult conversations. However, if a player’s performance on the playing or training paddock isn’t up to scratch, Cleary’s way is usually to have a quiet word in private, rather than to make a spectacle of them in front of his teammates.

“Yeah, he’s great with that sort of stuff,” Lindsay Smith said. “Obviously, there are times where you need to have tough conversations, but he does that in a really respectful way. He doesn’t like to put anyone on show in front of everyone. If he needs to talk to you about certain things, it’s normally just one-on-one …

“There are obviously different ways he can get his point across, and whatever he feels the team needs at the time, he judges that really well.”

One Cleary spray stands above all others. Sufficient time has now passed that his charges can chuckle about it. It also occurred in the bowels of Suncorp Stadium, during Magic Round in 2019.

It was at the start of his second stint at the foot of the mountains and things were looking bleak. Cleary’s departure from Wests Tigers the previous year was still a sore point for some, and at that juncture there was no hint of the success that was to come.

When the Tigers embarrassed the Panthers 30-4 in front of a packed house, Cleary blew a gasket. The spray he delivered that night would have made Stuart blush.

“It was all time,” one player recalled.

Shortly afterwards, Cleary returned to his usual, composed self. The story, as it was related to us, goes that Cleary then headed into the Suncorp Stadium lifts, where he bumped into another league identity under the pump. Dragons halfback Ben Hunt was also having a tough time of it, with critics calling for his head after struggling in the early stages of his $1.2 million-per-season deal.

As the lift doors closed, Cleary caught Hunt’s eye, smiled and delivered a one-liner as dry as the Simpson desert.

“How good is rugby league?”

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Adrian Proszenko is the Chief Rugby League Reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement