Having learnt a harsh lesson about targeting an injured halfback in an NRL grand final, Melbourne won’t go after Penrith superstar Nathan Cleary’s shoulder in the premiership decider.
In the 2018 grand final the Storm got distracted by Sydney Roosters No.7 Cooper Cronk, who went into the Accor Stadium match with a fractured shoulder blade.
Their former teammate marshalled the Roosters to an emphatic 21-6 victory.
While Storm skipper Harry Grant wasn’t part of that Melbourne line-up, he said his team wouldn’t make the same mistake in Sunday’s showdown.
Cleary missed three games after falling on his left shoulder against the Storm in round 24, returning for the finals, and he appeared to aggravate the joint “instability” late in Saturday’s 26-6 preliminary final win over Cronulla.
But with Cleary dominant since his return, including providing three try assists against the Sharks, Grant said the halfback had proven he could carry his injury without it affecting his contribution.
“We don’t need to focus on one player, on Nathan and his shoulder,” Grant said on Monday.
“I think he’s shown in recent weeks, in recent years, the class player he is and how he performs, whether he’s under a bit of an injury cloud or not, in these big games.
“He’s shown that in the last few weeks through his performances, and we won’t expect anything different, so we’re not going out to target him or handle him any differently than we normally would.”
While only Cameron Munster, Christian Welch and Nelson Asofa-Solomona remain from the 2018 grand final team, Melbourne’s own star No.7 Jahrome Hughes said going after Cleary would come at a cost.
“I think if we focus too much on him and his injury, then I think that’s not going to go well for us,” Hughes said.
“A few of the boys played in the ’18 grand final and they bring up that they probably focused on Cooper too much, more than they needed to, and it probably came back to bite them.
“We’ve fully learned from that as a club, and we probably won’t be looking at that too much and be more focusing on what we could do as a team to be better.”
A neck injury flared for Hughes during their 48-18 preliminary final win against the Roosters last Friday night but he was moving freely on Monday.
The grand final could cap a huge week for the 29-year-old, who is a favourite to win the Dally M Medal on Wednesday night as the game’s best player in 2024.
With Cleary limited to just 12 matches this season due to hamstring as well as shoulder issues, Hughes said that his rival was still the best in the business.
“I think that Nathan’s probably the best player in the game,” Hughes said.
“Obviously he hasn’t played too much this year, but I think just the influence he has on that team, and just his plays are so skillful, and he can do pretty much everything, so he’s the full package.”
Grant finished the preliminary final with a calf injury but the skipper declared he would be at full strength come Sunday.
“I’m feeling good, it was just a little niggle,” the 26-year-old said.
“I’ve played enough footy over the years to understand if something’s serious, and it was just a little bit of an awareness.
“I think it was 15-20 minutes into the game, I played the whole game and had no dramas with it so I’m definitely not worried or thinking about it.”
