Nath’s clearly rated
NATHAN Cleary could become the richest teen still living at home with his parents after Penrith started talks over a lucrative five-year, $3 million contract extension.
The prodigious halfback, who will come up against his father and Wests Tigers coach Ivan Cleary for the first time at NRL level on Sunday, still has two years remaining on his Panthers deal.
But with inevitable talk of a future family reunion at the Tigers, Penrith hope to lock him in for seven years and keep him until at least 2024.
Despite being just 19, Cleary is viewed as a future Penrith skipper. The lucrative deal illustrates Penrith’s faith in him leading them well into the next decade.
“He would be our No.1 priority at this point,” Penrith prop James Tamou said.
Panthers Group chief executive Brian Fletcher spoke with Cleary’s manage- ment late last week.
Fletcher declared the talented No.7 could be the “Johnathan Thurston of Penrith”, four years after Panthers supremo Phil Gould failed in his audacious bid to sign the North Queensland superstar.
If Cleary re-signs, he would next come off contract at 26, an age when most playmakers enter their prime.
There appears little doubt, given his already rapid rise, a mature and polished Cleary would then be worth well in excess of $1 million a season.
“We have opened negotiations with Nathan’s manager,” Fletcher said. “We are looking at him as a long-term player and leader. He could be the Johnathan Thurston of Penrith.
“Adding five years to his current contract would be the preferred amount.
“He is only young. Nathan will only be 26 years old when he comes off contact, if we are successful in re-signing him. Nathan is very level-headed and has all the talents. He was developed through our academy and came through the grades.”
Cleary said he was coping well with the strain and demands of the NRL but expected that to be tested even further on Sunday when he faces his father’s team.
WE ARE LOOKING AT HIM AS A LONG-TERM PLAYER. HE COULD BE THE JOHNATHAN THURSTON OF PENRITH PANTHERS BOSS BRIAN FLETCHER