Standing in a again nook of the NSW sheds after Wednesday evening’s hellish defeat, Nathan Cleary was a shell of a person.
He spent 20 minutes stewing on the sport together with his mother and father, Ivan and Rebecca, then agreed to take some questions from a huddle of reporters.
Inevitably, the Blues halfback was requested about that nagging narrative.
PLAYER RATINGS: Star’s ‘worst sport’ that led to NSW implosion
READ MORE: Munster breaks down after ‘superhuman’ Maroons win Origin
READ MORE: Horner axed by Crimson Bull in Formulation 1 bombshell
“There’s this debate about whether or not you have owned the Origin area,” one reporter stated.
“Is it unfair?”
Cleary may have defended himself. As a substitute, he agreed with the critics.
“On the finish of the day, I have never [owned the Origin area],” stated 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 suppose what different individuals say is out of line as a result of I most likely suppose that of myself anyway.”
Cleary did not wish to delve into what went mistaken in Sydney — “I am not 100 per cent positive [just yet]” — however he was definitely already racking his mind.
“I am going to positively replicate, and it is kind of already occurring in my mind in the intervening time,” the 27-year-old stated.
Re-live the 2025 State of Origin collection solely reside and free on 9 and 9Now.
“[I’m] simply making an attempt 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 remains 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 residence, 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 might have received himself the No.7 jumper for the Ashes late within the yr.
“On the finish of the day, you simply really feel such as you’ve let down the boys that you simply performed with, and the state clearly. That is what hurts probably the most,” Cleary stated.
“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 sport to surpass the match tallies of former NSW halfbacks Andrew Johns and Mitchell Pearce.
He admitted it pained him figuring out the Blues wouldn’t get one other shot at redemption for 12 months.
“I believe it is nearly rising from it, not kicking stones however rising, and looking for methods to get higher,” he stated.
“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 consistently evolving and you have to evolve your sport and that is the place I am at.”
