THE KNIGHTS ARE IN THE GRAND FINAL… but let’s talk about that Cleary injury

THE KNIGHTS ARE IN THE GRAND FINAL… BUT LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT CLEARY INJURY

I’m going to keep the Knights chat to one paragraph because if left to my own devices, I could easily write a 10-page soliloquy about the club and this result. I’ll keep it simple. I love sport. I love rugby league. I’ve loved the Knights since I was a little boy. I’ve worked for the club. And I still cannot quite fathom what I watched on the weekend. It was one of the most unbelievable sporting performances I’ve ever witnessed.

Were there tears? Of course.

Anyway. Physio hat back on. Before the game, when Ivan Cleary was interviewed about what role Nathan would play, I sensed a really weird energy from him. He seemed nervous and guarded .. so much so that I actually mentioned it to my Dad, who I was watching the game with. The whole situation seemed strange. Why start him on the bench? When was he going to come on? What was his actual capacity? Was he only going to play if Penrith were losing?

Going into kick-off, the whole Cleary situation just felt a little… off. Something was clearly amiss with his preparation.

Then he comes onto the field and sustains one of the most horrific injuries to a star player I can remember seeing. And it raises an interesting question: Did the broken foot he carried into the game play any role in what happened to his OTHER leg? When I first saw the tackle in real time, I actually thought he’d injured the already-busted side. Of course he has, I thought. Obviously he shouldn’t have played. Suddenly Ivan’s weird pre-match interview made complete sense in my head.

Then it became obvious that wasn’t what had happened at all. It was the other side. And once you saw the tackle and the severity of the injury, the conversation changed completely. The tackle wasn’t intentionally trying to injure Cleary. But it was dangerous, and it was exactly the type of mechanism that can result in a serious injury. So does that completely rule out his existing injury having played some tiny role? Not necessarily.

When you’re carrying an injury, there’s absolutely the potential for your movement to change. Maybe your timing is fractionally different. Maybe you’re protecting one side. Maybe your weight distribution changes. Maybe you react differently to contact. Could any of that have slightly altered the position Cleary found himself in when the tackle occurred? Of course. There’s a chance.

But if you asked me to put a number on it (and this is obviously just my opinion from watching the incident, not something we can actually prove), I’d say 90–99% of what happened was the nature of the tackle itself, rather than the fact he entered the game carrying an injury on the opposite side.

Sometimes in sport, there’s a temptation to connect the dots afterwards. He was already injured .. he played anyway .. he suffered a catastrophic injury ..  therefore he shouldn’t have played. I’m just not convinced that’s what happened here.

Could the existing injury have contributed in some small way? Yep. Would this injury potentially have happened to a completely healthy Nathan Cleary caught in the same position? In my opinion, absolutely.

That’s my two cents. And believe me, I’ve thought about it A LOT!

Now I can go back to thinking about the fact that THE NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS ARE PLAYING IN A GRAND FINAL.
🔵🔴UP THE KNIGHTS!!! 🔴🔵