Nathan Cleary is on the brink of rugby league immortality and his superstar girlfriend Mary Fowler has sent him a public message of support to help him achieve it.
Cleary is ready to overcome a shoulder ailment he suffered in the Penrith Panthers’ preliminary final victory over the Cronulla Sharks to lead his team to their fourth consecutive NRL grand final on Sunday.
The Panthers have already won the last three decisive games and can create even more history with a fourth against the Melbourne Storm at Accor Stadium.
Fowler also knows a thing or two about big games, helping to lead the Matildas to a historic position in the final four of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in the absence of injured star and captain Sam Kerr.
In a simple Instagram post, she sent a four-sentence message to her boyfriend that read:
‘Be yourself
then the people
looking for you
I can find you.’
“It won’t be long, Mary, until our son is a 4-time champion,” posted one of her followers.
“There’s nothing like young love,” another added.
Fowler sent a touching message of support to her boyfriend Nathan Cleary ahead of the NRL grand final on Sunday.
The heartfelt message came as Cleary prepares for a big final showdown against the Melbourne Storm, where Penrith can record a historic fourth consecutive premiership.
It comes after Cleary admitted on the Channel Nine Marlee and Me podcast that he is taking a similar approach to his relationship with Fowler as he did with football.
“It’s the next day for me, it’s the next day of how can I be a better person, how can I be a better player, how can I just get better?”
‘It’s probably a mentality I have a lot: finding ways to improve. Many times these are small incremental gains over a long period of time. They resort to huge profits.
“That’s my way of thinking, more than so many accolades or achievements.”
‘That’s both off the field and on. “I think if you’re improving as a person, that’s also reflected in your football.”
Fowler and Cleary have been dating since late 2023, as revealed exclusively by Daily Mail Austalia.
Meanwhile, Melbourne captain Harry Grant has revealed the Storm will not attack Cleary’s shoulder in the premiership decider.
In the 2018 grand final, the Storm were distracted by Sydney Roosters number 7 Cooper Cronk, who arrived at the Accor Stadium match with a fractured shoulder blade.
His former teammate led the Roosters to a commanding 21-6 victory.
While Grant was not part of that Melbourne lineup, he said his team would not make the same mistake in Sunday’s clash.
Cleary missed three games after falling on his left shoulder against the Storm in round 24, returning for the final, and appeared to aggravate the joint “instability” at the end of Saturday’s 26-6 preliminary final win over Cronulla.
Cleary didn’t seem concerned about his shoulder problem as he took selfies with fans at a training session ahead of the NRL grand final.
But with Cleary dominant since his return, including three try assists against the Sharks, Grant said the halfback had shown he could cope with his injury without it affecting his contribution.
“We don’t need to focus on one player, on Nathan and his shoulder,” Grant said Monday.
“I think he’s shown over the last few weeks, over the last few years, what a class player he is and how he performs, whether he’s under an injury cloud or not, in these big games.
“He’s shown that in recent weeks through his performances, and we don’t expect anything different, so we’re not going to attack him or handle him any differently than we normally would.”
While only Cameron Munster, Christian Welch and the suspended Nelson Asofa-Solomona remain in the 2018 grand final squad, Melbourne star No 7 Jahrome Hughes said chasing Cleary would come at a cost.
“I think if we focus too much on him and his injury, then we’re not going to do well,” Hughes said.
“Some of the guys played in the 2018 grand final and they mentioned that they probably focused too much on Cooper, more than necessary, and that probably came back to haunt them.”
“We’ve learned a lot from that as a club, and we probably won’t dwell on it too much and focus more on what we could do as a team to be better.”