Penrith general manager Phil Gould has sensationally revealed that he has an agreement with star Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary that involves playing for his father, Ivan.
Ivan is the coach of the Wests Tigers, and there has been much speculation that father and son would link up in the near future and don the same colours.
Coach Cleary was up front in his response when asked whether he was interested in signing his 20-year-old son at a press conference.
"Yes," was his reply to the question.
Before the Canterbury Bulldogs-Wests Tigers clash at ANZ Stadium on Friday night, Gould revealed that he isn't going to stand in the way of a family reunion, and he has actually discussed the matter with the younger Cleary.
“I have an agreement with Nathan. If he wakes up one day and says, ‘today I want to go and play with my dad’, (then) let’s make it happen. I’ve got no problem with him going to play with his father whatsoever," Gould said on Channel Nine.
“It’s Nathan’s career, he’s got to make that decision in November, whatever he decides, I’ll be a thousand per cent behind him.”
The Panthers guru went into detail regarding the situation and believed that it was a fairly simple set of circumstances.
“The answer is very simple: Ivan is a father who wants to coach his son, we all understand that,” Gould said.
"Nathan is a son who would like to play for his father one day, we all understand that.
"I believe it will happen, and I would like to see it happen one day.
"But the decision right at the moment is in Nathan's hands, neither his father or I are putting any pressure on him."
Since his brilliant debut season for the Panthers in 2017, 20-year-old Cleary has gone from strength to strength and has become one of the NRL's most sought-after playmakers.
His most remarkable achievement thus far would be returning from a serious knee injury he sustained in round three of 2018, to play a huge role in the NSW Blues' Origin victory over the Maroons.
He is contracted with the Panthers until the end of the 2019 season, whereas his father is under contract at Wests Tigers until the end of the 2020 season.
Due to Gould's comments, it now seems that it's a matter of 'when' rather than 'if' the two Cleary boys team up.
If the duo decides that the Wests Tigers are the club they both want to represent, and it's indeed looking that way, then Ivan has to decide who will make way for his son.
With Josh Reynolds, Benji Marshall and Luke Brooks on their books at the moment, the quota is already looking full.
But with another season still to run on Nathan's Panthers contract, it's hard to see his decision impacting Marshall, who is unlikely to play on in 2020.
That leaves Brooks and Reynolds.
Reynolds, who has played just five games in his first season at the Tigers due to injury and will sit out the remainder of 2018 with a shoulder problem, is on a massive four-year deal reportedly worth $900,000 a season until the end of 2021.
Brooks, on the other hand, is off contract at the end of 2019, the same year as Nathan Cleary at Penrith, meaning the logical decision seems to be to replace Brooks with Cleary at halfback in 2020.
Greg Alexander agrees with that line of thought.
”If Nathan Cleary goes to join his dad then I would say Luke Brooks wouldn’t be at the Tigers,” Alexander told foxsports.com.au.
“They can’t fit them all in. They have Josh Reynolds who has a four-year deal at the Tigers and hasn’t struck a blow this year because of injury and he’s on a massive deal.
“You would think that by the end of next year Benji (Marshall) would have played his last footy, even though he is going great at the moment.
“So I would think Luke Brooks would have to move on. If they were going to sign Nathan Cleary they can’t fit both of them in and still have Josh Reynolds there."
