{"id":138304,"date":"2021-10-03T12:32:44","date_gmt":"2021-10-03T12:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=138304"},"modified":"2021-10-03T17:58:43","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T17:58:43","slug":"legend-hurt-but-saves-huge-praise-for-cleary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=138304","title":{"rendered":"Legend 'hurt' but saves huge praise for Cleary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The brilliant halfback behind Parramatta<\/a>'s four top-grade titles of the 1980s, the legendary Peter Sterling<\/a>, has delivered Penrith<\/a> No.7 Nathan Cleary<\/a> the ultimate rap following the Panthers' 2021 NRL grand final win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cleary was superb in the Panthers' 14-12 victory over the Rabbitohs in Brisbane<\/a>, leading Penrith with his expert kicking game en route to being crowned the winner of the Clive Churchill Medal.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Joey lauds 'sensational' referee despite two late calls that burned South Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n

Even as a wholehearted supporter of the Eels, Sterling said it "hurt" watching the Rabbitohs<\/a> lose in the fashion they did.<\/p>\n

But his praise for Cleary was enormous after the 23-year-old playmaker guided the Panthers to their first NRL<\/a> premiership since 2003.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"He was fantastic, he was the best player on the field and I thought he kicked South Sydney into submission," Sterling said on Nine's post-match show.<\/p>\n

"Got it right in the first 40 minutes. Came up with five set restarts. These grand finals \u2013 they're won by pressure. I thought apart from the missed tackle for Cody Walker's try<\/a> he was pretty much faultless.<\/p>\n

"You need a cool head, you need a No.7 to know how to handle these situations and I just thought he got everything so right tonight."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> The Mole's NRL grand final player ratings: Panthers and Rabbitohs studs and duds<\/a><\/p>\n

Sterling pointed out that Cleary had been exposed to the toughest of tests early in his career, alluding to his 10 State of Origin<\/a> games with NSW<\/a> and last year's unsuccessful NRL decider<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Fatty<\/p>\n

"He's 23! He's still learning the game," Sterling said.<\/p>\n

"But he's experienced so much at a young age. He's gone through Origin series, he's been under pressure as a young player with so much expectation. But he's a complete footballer."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Panthers star Brian To'o proposes to partner after winning NRL grand final<\/a><\/p>\n

Cleary became just the second Panthers player to win a Clive Churchill Medal<\/a>, following in the path of 2003 winner Luke Priddis.<\/p>\n

Penrith beat Canberra<\/a> in the 1991 NSWRL grand final, but Raiders lock Bradley Clyde took out the top individual honour in that game.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The brilliant halfback behind Parramatta's four top-grade titles of the 1980s, the legendary Peter Sterling, has delivered Penrith No.7 Nathan Cleary the ultimate rap following […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138306,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138304\/revisions\/138306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}