The NRL premiership winner has revealed he got into the same bad habit during his playing days.
Matty Johns and Cooper Cronk have both identified a need for Nathan Cleary to square-up to the defensive line more – a tweak they believe will fix the stuttering Panthers. Cleary has been powerless to stop the four-time defending premiers from falling to last on the NRL ladder after eight rounds, with just two wins and six losses.
The Panthers’ form is so bad that there are question marks about whether NSW coach Laurie Daley can pick Cleary and fullback Dylan Edwards for State of Origin this year. On Tuesday night, Johns and Cronk highlighted a worrying habit that has crept into Cleary’s game – one that rival teams have figured out and is simultaneously putting a handbrake on the Panthers’ attack.
The Panthers have made the grand final five years in a row, winning four of them. A key component of their attack has been the way Cleary crabs across field and drops a ball-runner underneath him with an inside pass, before attacking the space created out wide by the runner bending the line.
But the tactic hasn’t been nearly as effective in 2025, mainly because Cleary doesn’t have the same calibre of players around him that he’s used to. But according to Johns, it’s also created a bad habit that Cleary must address moving forward.
“Those cross shapes (where he’s running across field), I find them dangerous,” Johns said on the Matty and Cronk show on Fox League. “I’m talking about what it starts to do to playmakers in the long term. You start to get into that mode of going across and if you’re not careful, you start to lose your up-field punch.”
Cronk agreed, saying Cleary needs to focus on attacking the line more and running the ball himself. “When your hips are east-west as opposed to north-south you become less effective as a ball-player,” Cronk said. “You can run across field as much as you like, but at some stage you need to get your hips back to square to the defensive line, and then be able to move.”
Matty Johns and Cooper Cronk highlight worrying Panthers issue
Johns said he got into the same bad habit during his playing days at Newcastle, but fixed it with some simple drills at training. “In the mid-90s we started playing a lot of those shapes, and suddenly I find myself losing my up-field punch and playing sideways all the time,” he said.
“It took a fair bit to correct that, and one of the things that worked was (telling myself) ‘on reception (of the ball), outside foot up’. And do not let your inside shoulder roll across, because when you do that you cannot go back. When the shoulder rolls it means the hips are out of position.”
The Panthers’ next chance to right the ship comes on Sunday against the Broncos in Magic Round at Suncorp Stadium. Ivan Cleary’s side will have to defy history just to make the finals this year, with no team this century recovering to make the top-eight after coming last after eight rounds.