He still had to be good enough to win it. Cleary may have won it this year too if he was available. Nicho was 1 or 2 points off in 2023 too.
2022 - 6 tries, 83 goals (74%), 4 field goals, 21 forced dropouts, 21 try assists, 117 run metres, 92.6% tackles, 36 offloads, 6 linebreaks, 29 linebreak assists
2023 - 5 tries, 83 goals (79%), 1 field goal, 10 forced dropouts, 28 try assists, 148 run metres, 91.28% tackles, 28 offloads, 7 linebreaks, 34 linebreak assists
Those years are pretty comparable for mine, I thought he was fantastic in both and justified the upgrade. He also hit the ground running this year and was great till origin. At the time he re-signed, there wasn't really anyone thinking it was a bad deal.