Why Cleary's 'not falling in love' with himself after Origin redemption

Nathan Cleary took NSW’s defeat in the Origin series opener hard and accepted personal responsibility, but the Blues playmaker isn’t planning to revel too much in his redemption declaring: “Sometimes if you play well you fall in love with yourself and then you start going backwards”.

Cleary was a forlorn figure after Origin I as he sat in the dressing room discussing his performance with members of the NSW coaching staff but the Panthers playmaker was determined not to get caught up in the highs of his player-of-the-match performance in Sunday night’s 44-12 triumph.

“I think I am at a stage of my career now where I am lucky with the experience I have had, that I feel I have worked out what I need to do in preparation to get the job done,” Cleary said.

“I thought that I prepared pretty well in Game I, but it didn’t work out. You don’t have to freak out over one bad game, you just go back to your processes and that’s what gives you piece of mind - if I can get the preparation right, get the processes right.

“When you have a good team performance you have got to enjoy it, they obviously don’t come around very often - especially in Origin - like that, but you can’t ride the emotions too much.”

Cleary went from arguably the worst performance in a Blues jersey since debuting in 2018 to his best as he scored two tries and laid on another two in the stunning bounce-back from NSW’s 16-10 loss in Origin I.

As he had done after the series opener, Cleary spoke openly to the media as he analysed his performance and the reasons behind the highs and lows, while shrugging off criticism he had received in between the two games.

“I take the wins and losses hard, the criticism just comes with it. I am not too focused on what other people say about me if their opinion doesn’t really mean anything to me,” he said.

“I have got a great support system around me; they will tell me things and I will listen, the coaching staff will tell me things and I will listen to them.

“Every time I pull on this jersey, I just want to make those people proud and make my team-mates proud.

“I think that to move forward you have got to be honest about yourself and I think that’s what allows me to take the criticism because I know within myself that I let myself down and sometimes you have got to be a harsh critic and acknowledge that you didn’t play well to get better.

“I spend a fair bit of time working with the coaches to look over the game and see where we can improve. At the end of the day, it is a team sport and we have got to be working in the same direction. Everyone knew what we needed to do.”