Cricket
Racing
Rugby
League
Motorsport
Football
Golf
Combat Sports
Basketball
Tennis
Other Sports
Sport Nation
The left-field contract that Johns would offer Nathan Cleary
Charles Goodsir • March 20th, 2025 1:49 pm
Rugby league great Matty Johns has proposed a radical strategy for rival clubs to poach Penrith Panthers superstar Nathan Cleary.
The 27-year-old is signed to Penrith until the end of the 2027 and a reported $1.3 million per season. However, following Dylan Brown’s 10-year and $13 million contract to leave Parramatta for Newcastle, it means clubs will have to go outside the box to lure marquee players out of their current team.
Johns suggested teams may look to entice Cleary away from Penrith with the promise of a coaching career after his playing days.
"If I owned the club, this is what I'd do and it would have been the same with Cameron Smith," Johns told SEN.
“If something happened to Ivan Cleary and he said ‘I can't coach for the rest of this season, I've got a bit going on.’
“I'm telling you, Nathan could step straight in and coach that side.
“It's a no-brainer. I'd offer Nathan a 10-year deal of which seven or eight of that would be playing and rolling on in the last few years into a coaching role.
“This is with the view of him being a head coach four or five years after he retires.
“So you're signing him essentially for life.”
Johns clarified that this wouldn’t work for every player and believes that only a player of Cleary’s calibre would command such a unique contract.
“I don’t think it would work with Kalyn Ponga because he’s a different type of player,” Johns added.
“I don’t know about Harry Grant because of the damage that is inflicted from him running through the middle of the field.
“Harry plays differently to Cameron Smith because it was like trying to tackle water.
"Harry cops his fair degree of punishment.
“That’s the only thing stopping me from signing Harry to a 10-year-deal.”
