Good post mate.
Cleary has finally had a season worthy of his hype and no doubt is a key contributor to that panthers team - but has he had as big an impact, as important or irreplaceable as SJ to the Sharks was this year? I don't think so
SJ is less replacable because of the cast alongside him. We've seen what happens when Tracey or Trindall have to come in to cover in the halves. It's wasn't quite the Luai/Burton win/win scenario Cleary dealt with. Cleary barely had to break stride while that worked itself out, while our team was trying to reinvent themselves every few games to adjust. Even worse when Moylan would cameo as a ballplayer.. ugh! I'd say we tried 4 different ways to play the halves through the 7+ combinations we had to dish up over the season.
Cleary has played in a relatively stable team with good performers around him - SJ has played in a dysfunctional spine and team that is on the back foot with changes week to week under a rookie coach making his performances even more impressive. he's also had to come back from an injury or two.
When he's bad it's very ugly but when he is good there are few in the game that can touch him or reproduce what he does for a team.
There's mitigating factors, but it's still fact that SJ wasn't as consistent or durable. Sometimes I blame him, but I understand it enough to know he was our best player this year.
Mate, Cleary does it all. SJ did have to carry the team while Chad was out, and it did impact his ability to attack. Mostly due to the opposition's attention. Teams know that we basically had one half, and shutting SJ down meant zero attack. For all his faults, Chad did a great job of splitting defensive attention and letting SJ play more diamonds than rocks.
It would be fairer to compare Cleary to Chad than to Shaun particularly on consistency and durability grounds
It might be fairier to compare Chad to Cleary, but you've seen how that's worked out recently...
Though probably not from round 6-7 onwards. Chad stopped playing that Cleary role to be the second 5/8. A good move for us, but very different to Cleary.
I wouldn't say Cleary can play like this forever, but the original conversation was along the lines of comparing 2020 SJ and Cleary. Personally I think Cleary will lap SJ by the time he's 30 (mostly due to the teams he'll have around him), and I love SJ.
When he's bad it's very ugly but when he is good there are few in the game that can touch him or reproduce what he does for a team.
Sums it up for the original point of my post, really
Nathan and Shaun would be a very cool pairing... unstoppable!
