Shoulder set for prelim but Cleary eyes more Geyer prep
Nathan Cleary welcomes the prospect of another week being bashed up by Mavrik Geyer as Penrith’s hopes of a fifth consecutive NRL grand final appearance literally rest on his shoulder.
Son of former Panthers enforcer Mark, Geyer was the man tasked with putting star halfback Cleary through his paces as he prepared to make a rapid-fire return from his shoulder issue in the first week of the finals.
Running the Geyer gauntlet proved perfect preparation for Cleary, who was Penrith’s best in a 30-10 defeat of the Sydney Roosters that sent the Panthers to a preliminary final.
Cleary is continuing rehabilitation ahead of Saturday’s clash with Cronulla but his shoulder pulled up well from his first match in a month – also Penrith’s most clinical in recent memory.
Cleary continues to take part in full training and holds no doubt over his ability to face the Sharks.
“Feeling good, obviously the week off helps but I’m doing all I can to put my best foot forward for the team,” he said.
“This year I haven’t been able to play as much as I’d like to so I’m just building those combinations. They’re going to need to be in tip-top shape for this weekend.”
Preparations are likely to include another week of attention from fringe first-grader Geyer, who’s almost 15kg heavier and 10cm taller than Cleary.
Lining up on the left edge during the Panthers’ opposed sessions, Geyer is set to put on his best impression of Teig Wilton, the Cronulla second-rower who plays on that side.
“I’d say so, (Geyer) likes to go pretty hard at training,” Cleary said.
“It was actually really good, I actually needed that for confidence through training before that Roosters game obviously with Angus (Crichton) running at me, it was going to be a tough test.
“‘Mav’ did a good job of that and helped me out.”
Elsewhere, Jesse Ramien downplayed wearing a moon boot at Cronulla on Monday, confident he will line up on the Sharks’ right edge despite recent ankle troubles.
The centre missed their qualifying final loss to Melbourne but returned to help the side snap a seven-game finals losing streak with their win over North Queensland.
“I pulled up a bit sore after the game but pretty lucky we’ve got an eight day turnaround, so I’ll be doing everything I can with the physios,” he said.
“I think the boot’s probably a bit more precautionary, they got me into it pretty much straight after the game to sort of offload the leg.”It is a bit sore but opportunities like this don’t come around too often so you’ve just got to take them when they come.”
Cronulla have their first session for the week on Tuesday and Ramien aims to start running again on Thursday.
Siosifa Talakai is the likeliest man to replace him in the centres if he loses his race against the clock, having played there against the Storm a fortnight ago.
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