Cleary family reveals Nathan as a picture of Blues perfection

Living in Auckland, watching the Origin series kick off at 10pm was never a problem for Nathan Cleary.

The little kid with a big right boot used to go to bed straight after school so he could stay up late and watch his beloved NSW.

"We'd always tell him if he wanted to watch Origin he needed a sleep, so he'd go to bed at 7pm and we'd wake him up at 10pm,'' Cleary's proud mother, Bec, says.

"He was always NSW. His younger brother Jett and sister Milaya were born in New Zealand, but always supported Queensland because of Steve Price, who was playing for [dad] Ivan at the Warriors.

"Queensland always used to win.

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"When Nat started playing first grade, Jett would still go for Queensland, but told him, 'the only time I'll go for NSW is if you play for the Blues'.

"Now he wants all the Blues gear and anything with 'Cleary' on the back.''

Of the 11 Blues debutants who will run on to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Wednesday's Origin opener, none offer long-suffering Blues fans more hope than rookie playmaker Cleary.

The 20-year-old will have up to 20 family members at the game. Most of them were across the road at AAMI Park when he made his NRL debut for Penrith just two years ago.

Sadly, Cleary's biggest fan, his late grandfather Tim Stuart, won't be there. If you watch the TV coverage closely on Wednesday night, Cleary will run on to the hallowed turf and take a quick glance to the sky.

"Even when dad was sick in the end, and on a dialysis machine three times a week, he would still get to as many games as he could,'' Bec says. "He passed away on September 22 [2015], three days before Nat played for the Australian Schoolboys in Brisbane.

"We had paid for him and mum to fly up and watch him play. I got the call on the Monday to come to the hospital, and he died the next night.

"When Nat told us last weekend he got picked for NSW, I have a little shrine [in the living room] for dad, I had a bit of a cry and said, 'grandad would be so proud of you'."

Ivan adds: "Tim was his biggest fan. He'd watch replays, sometimes twice. He never saw him play first grade, which was a shame."

Cleary is one hell of a talent. Blues players could not praise the new Blues No.7 enough this week.

The fact he is an upstanding young man, raised by a tight-knit family, just adds to his appeal.

The Clearys welcomed Fairfax Media into their house at the foot of the mountains this week to throw open the family photo albums. There were no shortage of photos involving sports.

Like little Nathan, not even two years of age, charging through a lounge room and ready to launch a yellow plastic football off a tee while wearing a Sydney Roosters jersey.

Or the time he was listening to his dad give some pre-game instructions while playing for Collaroy Cromer in the under-6s football team. When Ivan didn't have a spec of grey hair.

"I coached him in soccer, but I've never coached him in rugby league. Yet," Ivan says, with a smile.

"He was a good little soccer player. He played reps. He gravitated to the back in a sweeper role and could read the game well. He'd always end up where the ball was."

There are photos of Cleary rollerblading down the Manly corso. Other grainy images of him proudly wearing Manchester United and Sydney Swans jerseys. Some of him surfing and playing cricket, two sports that stopped quickly when they moved to Sydney's west because there was no beach and Saturday morning sport in the summer had zero appeal.

The beach played a big role in Ivan's life, which explains the regular trips to Bali, including a family photo of Nathan, Ivan, Bec, Indiana [19], Jett [13] and Milaya [11] after the Warriors grand final in 2011.

I point to a photo of Nathan with his right leg in a cast and ask what sporting accident caused it?

"He got hit by a car in a car park at Collaroy,'' Bec says. "We'd picked him up from school in Kindergarten, I was too busy worrying about what he had left in his lunchbox, not watching what he was doing, and he ran out in front of a P-plater.

"It was a car park so he was only driving slowly. He didn't want to take his shoe off because he thought his foot was going to fall off.''

A frowning Nathan is spotted reading a Big League magazine. He loved to flick through the weekly mag and Rugby League Week, which were bought religiously every week by his grandfather.

Most of the photos feature a chubby-faced Nathan decked out in a Warriors jersey during his dad's playing days at the club and then later as head coach.

A photo of Ivan holding Nathan and his little sister Indiana in his final game for the Warriors in 2002 is one of his favourites. Good mate Kevin Campion and two of his children also appear in the image.

Campion remains good friends with Ivan and texted him at the start of the week to wish Nathan the best.

"I hope he plays well, but there's no way I can go for the Blues," Campion wrote.

Ivan, who also played for his home-town Manly, North Sydney and Sydney Roosters, had a two-year deal on the table with Huddersfield, and was waiting around in Sydney to fly to England when the Chooks reached out and floated a coaching offer.

"I became a coach by accident," says Ivan, who also has a degree in land economics.

For all his big moments during his own playing and coaching career, Ivan cannot begin to describe his emotions ahead of Wednesday night.

He is close with his eldest boy. It is the reason most in the game are convinced Nathan will finish up at Penrith at the end of next season and join the old man at Wests Tigers.

Ivan and Nathan have made no secret of the fact they would love to be at the one club one day. Bec certainly hopes it happens.

"Nathan always thinks I go for 'Ivy' rather than him,'' Bec says. "I tell him I don't, I go for both of you, but dad pays the bills.

"I always tell Nat 'it would be easier if you played together'. I'll never put any pressure on him or make him think he has to play for Ivan. But that would be my ultimate dream – for my husband and son to play in the same team. Hopefully it will happen one day."

But first there is Origin I. And the giant expectations. And nerves. And bloody Queensland.

Nathan still lives at home and spent Friday and Saturday night relaxing with his family. He would have spent a bit of time playing PlayStation with Jett.

Ivan said he would have no magical words of advice for him before kick-off.

"Even when he played his first game back from injury the other night, he [Ivan] said he couldn't remember the first 20 minutes because he was that nervous,'' Bec says.

Ivan knows Nathan will cope. So does coach NSW Brad Fittler. And every Blues supporter.

Even the Queenslanders will be nervously bracing for Cleary.

How many kids in Auckland will be pinching some sleep to wake up at 10pm?

Christian covers rugby league for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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