{"id":446413,"date":"2025-04-09T20:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=446413"},"modified":"2025-04-09T23:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T23:14:16","slug":"cleary-clone-tipped-to-fire-in-master-vs-apprentice-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=446413","title":{"rendered":"Cleary clone tipped to fire in 'master vs apprentice' clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

D\ufeffarren Lockyer<\/a> has heaped enormous praise on Dolphins young gun Isaiya Katoa<\/a> and believes he is "the closest version" to emulating Nathan Cleary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old has been a shining light for the Redcliffe-based outfit early in the year, despite the side only winning one of their opening five matches.<\/p>\n

Katoa played a starring role in the Dolphins' victory against the Titans last weekend, but will face a tough assignment on Thursday night against reigning premiers Penrith.<\/p>\n

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Originally from the Panthers system, Katoa moved up north as one of the most highly-touted young playmakers in the country and has started to show his potential.<\/p>\n

\"Isaiya<\/p>\n

And in the best endorsement of his undeniable talent yet, Lockyer backed the halfback to rise to the occasion against the game's best player in Cleary.<\/p>\n

"I think Katoa is probably the closest version you get to Nathan," he said on Wide World of Sports' QLDER.<\/p>\n

"The style that he plays, he runs a lot and Nathan runs a lot as well.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"It's really interesting, it's the master vs the apprentice.<\/p>\n

"I reckon with Katoa, it will motivate him and he will play out of his skin."<\/p>\n

Katoa's statistics early in the season don't jump off the page, registering just two try assists, but his 113 run metres per game are up their with the league's top halves.<\/p>\n

\"Who<\/p>\n

Lockyer also believes after a confidence-building win last weekend, Kristian Woolf's men could be primed to upset a vulnerable Penrith side.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"I give them a red-hot chance," he said.<\/p>\n

"I know Penrith, you can't write them off, but the Dolphins after that performance and getting their energy back, they are gonna be hard to beat."\u00a0\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D\ufeffarren Lockyer has heaped enormous praise on Dolphins young gun Isaiya Katoa and believes he is "the closest version" to emulating Nathan Cleary. The 21-year-old […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":446415,"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\/446413"}],"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=446413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446418,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446413\/revisions\/446418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/446415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=446413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=446413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=446413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}