Fai drowning grounds Cleary
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary will never forget the tragic drowning of Warriors star Sonny Fai in 2009. Christian Nicolussi reports.
Ivan Cleary can still remember the phone call in the middle of the night. ‘‘It was the fourth of January, 2009,’’ Cleary tells The SunHerald. ‘‘I’d flown back from Sydney to Auckland and I got a call from Warriors football manager Don Mann.
‘‘He started telling me Sonny Fai had been at the beach with his family, his younger brother got caught in a rip, he pushed him out of the rip, but then they didn’t see Sonny again.
‘‘The next day I turned up to training and my first job was letting everyone who walked in know what had happened.
‘‘We all got on a bus and went to Bethells Beach and basically started scouring the shores.
‘‘It was pretty heavy. You didn’t know if you were going to find him. It was so surreal.
‘‘The guys had come back from a couple of weeks off, they were happy and ready to start training.
‘‘There were a lot of tears. It was crazy. There were some guys who probably never really recovered. It certainly took a lot longer than we anticipated.
‘‘Looking back, I don’t think we envisaged how hard it was going to be. A lot of the boys covered up a lot of it.
‘‘There is no rule book for that one. We had to manage it as best we could. It certainly put football a fair way down the rung in terms of priorities.’’
That was 10 years ago.
Two weeks ago, Cleary again found himself dealing with another pre-season issue no coach can prepare for.
Two sex tapes involving Tyrone May surfaced on a Friday, then another tape featuring Tyrone Phillips and lower-grader Liam Coleman on the Monday.
May was charged on the Tuesday for allegedly filming and disseminating sexual acts with two women without their knowledge and consent.
Players could give no guarantees more tapes would not surface.
Former Panther Corey Harawira-Naera was interviewed by the integrity unit and later went on public record to declare he was not the man responsible for leaking the footage.
Panthers chairman Dave O’Neill, chief executive Brian Fletcher and general manager Phil Gould addressed the players for more than an hour a fortnight ago. The players then dragged their feet down the tunnel underneath Panthers Stadium and were belted 20-0 by Parramatta in a trial. Cleary shrugged and was almost dismissive of the trial result when asked yesterday. Now you know why.
Eels fans shouldn’t get too carried away about that trial being a guide for what could play out in the battle of the west today.
Cleary only thought of Fai when The Sun-Herald asked him how he dealt with a significant off-field trauma so close to the season proper.
As he stood bare foot on a soggy morning out west, it was as if a ‘‘lightbulb’’ went off somewhere in Cleary’s brain, somewhere tucked underneath his thick head of grey hair.
‘‘Honestly, now I’m thinking about it and you’ve asked the question, I have dealt with harder stuff in the past where there’s no [coach’s] manual for it,’’ he says. ‘‘It’s part of being a coach. You have to do your best on the run.
‘‘Essentially, we’re dealing with young men and from time to time issues will come up and you have to navigate your way through it the best way you can.
‘‘Sonny Fai, that was the most difficult thing. It was extremely difficult. The Auckland Blues have gone through a similar thing the last couple of weeks. It brings you back to earth when things like that happen.’’
Time will tell if more sex tapes emerge.
While disappointed the Panthers’ brand has been tarnished and the fans embarrassed by his players’ past sins, Cleary was just as irritated by the commentary about the game’s culture by players, coaches and administrators.
Wayne Bennett dubbed those who whinged about being embarrassed to be associated with the game as ‘‘drama queens’’.
Cleary was a lot more measured.
‘‘Probably the most frustrating thing for me is the number of people involved in the game who have criticised the game,’’ Cleary says.
‘‘I’ve heard a couple of things about the culture needs to be changed in rugby league. But a lot of the people who are saying it are part of the culture.
‘‘I’ve been in the NRL almost 30 years. Rugby league players haven’t changed. The environment has definitely changed. If anything, today’s players are more aware than ever before.
‘‘But they’re still rugby league players. If they’ve always been the same, if you’re involved in the game and you want to criticise it, then you need to take responsibility for being a part of that culture. That’s what culture is. I’ve been involved in it.
‘‘Everyone who has played the game, is involved in the game, coaches, players, administrators, journalists, we’re all part of rugby league.
‘‘I don’t think the modern-day player is any worse – they’re possibly even better – than what’s come before us.’’
The forgotten story about today’s homecoming for Ivan is that it’s his first NRL game in charge of son Nathan.
Ivan hopped off the Wests Tigers bus and jumped at the chance to return to Penrith early. He says it was not entirely about the chance to coach Nathan.
O’Neill phoned Cleary for a coffee and chat in late July and, while happy to float the idea of a return, never expected things to accelerate the way they did. Relations between former coach Anthony Griffin and Gould had hit rock bottom. It had become toxic.
O’Neill started to think about all the coaches out there, but kept coming back to Cleary.
He was a mate. He still resided in Penrith. He was popular with the players. Gould was the one who thought Cleary needed a spell the first time, but there would be no issues with the pair working together again. There hasn’t been since.
As one Panthers official said: ‘‘Gus and Ivan are fine. Time heals all wounds. Who would have thought Des Hasler could work with the Penn family again?’’
Panthers legend Mark Geyer is keen to see Cleary back, but also knows he has about three years to win a title now he has the ‘‘keys to the castle’’.
‘‘There’s pressure on him, and he’d be the first to admit that,’’ Geyer said.
‘‘But I like him. He’s a damn good coach. He’s a mildmannered type of bloke. And with the abundance of youth and, in particular, his young bloke being one of them, he’s on the same wavelength. He knows about social issues and what kids go on with. He has four of his own.’’