The Cleary bombshell we all should have seen coming

May 13, 2026 — 7:30pm

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It was inside a new car showroom in Kingswood, just after he returned from watching son Nathan steer the Kangaroos to an Ashes whitewash in England, that Ivan Cleary dropped the first hint about a move that on Wednesday rocked the rugby league world.

Cleary rarely gives one-on-one interviews, but sat down with this masthead in November. For more than half an hour, the four-time premiership-winning coach spoke of his hope of one day seeing his sons play together, his thoughts about PNG entering the competition and even the prospect of the codes coming together for a hybrid game.

But the comments that resonated were those regarding his representative coaching ambitions.

For a man who has achieved so much as a player and coach – including four straight premierships with the clipboard – there was one box left to tick.

“It’s starting to intrigue me a little bit more, yeah,” Cleary said at the time of coaching in the representative era.

“Today I’ve just come back after being around the Australian........

© The Age