Penrith Panthers head coach Ivan Cleary has advised NRL match officials to keep an eye out for his son and halfback Nathan Cleary as he's becoming wary that the Rabbitohs defence will be heavily targeting the 23-year-old, perย The Sydney Morning Herald.ย
The main points of concern for Cleary will be the consistent pressure on his kicking game on the fifth tackle.
Cleary's concern comes not long after Rabbitohs' staff made numerous complaints after their Round 23 loss to the Panthers. The Rabbitohs' administration questioned the Penrith's use of "blockers", hindering Rabbitohs players pressuring kicks.
These same concerns were raised by South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett last year when coaching Queensland. The veteran coach noticed that New South Wales had used a similar tactic to protect Cleary of Queensland pressure when kicking.
The Rabbitohs came to the conclusion that Panthers forward Isaah Yeo was guilty of an illegal block that wasn't flagged by match officials during the Round 23 encounter.
Additionally, footage from previous seasons have raised alarming concerns for the Panther's camp. A late clothesline-like shot on Cleary last year from Blues teammate Cameron Murray has truly raised eyebrows.
With the NRL supposedly cracking down on tackles and late hits with contact to the head it would be interesting to see if players like Murray will have the audacity to do attempt similar acts again.
However, simply due to Nathan Cleary's form and dominance within the halfback role it should come as no surprise that Bennett's South Sydney outfit will be targeting the Origin star. Although Penrith's coach is still adamant that more will need to be done to protect his playmaker.
"Nathan is targeted every match and often the contact is outside the current protection interpretations," he told the Herald.
"In fact, I don't think we have ever received a penalty for a late hit, or unnecessary contact on him, which is extraordinary considering the amount of kicks he executes."
According to the NRL's rules regarding blockers, they must be either stationary or moving forward, and can't change direction backwards or sideways, more simply they must run their line.
Moreover, the Rabbitohs are more than aware of Cleary's kicking threat and targeting the halfback is honestly inevitable, however with the NRL's crackdown on late hits and high shots it will be interesting to see how the Rabbitohs go about doing it.
The Panthers will host the Rabbitohs at Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville on Saturday night, with the match commencing at 7:50pm AEST.
