Cashed up UK rugby clubs could be sharpening their pencils to sign NRL superstar Nathan Cleary with one NRL great fearing he will defect to be closer to Mary Fowler.
Mary and Nathan started their relationship late in 2023 as revealed exclusively by Daily Mail Australia.
Since then, they have emerged as Australia’s leading sports duo, garnering thousands of responses from football and rugby league fans through their social media posts.
This sparked rumours that Cleary might join the English Super League in 2025 to be nearer to his partner who plays for Manchester City in the Women’s Super League, but the Panthers swiftly dismissed these claims.
However Penrith Panthers coach Ivan Cleary recently revealed his son will put surgery on hold so he can fly to the UK and spend time with Fowler.
‘He’s heading overseas to see Mary, and then he’ll get it done,’ Ivan said at the club’s awards night on Tuesday.
This has again got the rumour mill suggesting that Cleary could be set to join the UK Super League after already claiming a record four consecutive NRL premierships with the Panthers.
Cleary is travelling to the UK in the NRL off-season to visit his girlfriend Mary Fowler
Fowler could not be at the NRL grand final but sent her message of support from the Manchester City sheds
Either way, NRL great and television personality Matty Johns does not like the idea of Cleary being floated in the shopfront of UK rugby clubs looking to poach him.
‘My only fear with Nathan is him going to England puts him pretty much in the spotlight or basically he’s right in the backyard of these big French rugby clubs and European rugby clubs,’ Johns said on his SEN program Morning Glory with Matty Johns on Friday.
‘And there would be a temptation there (to poach him). Some of them (rugby clubs) would probably look to make a bid sooner rather than later, that’s the only thing that would concern me.’
Johns has first hand experience, watching in the early 2000s as English rugby clubs desperately tried to sign his brother Andrew.
‘There’s been times in our game where our players have had a big standing internationally, such as European rugby and Andrew (Johns) was one of those,’ Johns said.
‘There was always the temptation of luring Andrew to rugby to take on Jonny Wilkinson.’
NRL legend Matty Johns has warned that UK rugby clubs could take advantage of Nathan Cleary’s visit to England
Former Wallaby Peter Fitzsimons has urged rugby clubs to try and sign Cleary while he is in the UK visiting Mary Fowler
Meanwhile former Wallaby and Fairfax columnist Peter FitzSimons is again pushing for UK rugby clubs to seize the opportunity and sign Cleary while he is under their noses.
‘The best thing might be if we of the rugby union could take Nathan Cleary off their hands for three years or so, which could give him a taste of a genuine world stage, and put him on the London/Paris/Buenos Aires circuit rather than Cronulla/Campbelltown/Canberra one, as fine as those cities are,’ he wrote in his SMH column.
‘That would also make it easier to see his partner Mary Fowler, and give him a break from the brutal physical toll of league.
‘Get it? The NRL comp is freed up for others to win for a nice change, the Wallabies might suddenly be competitive again, and Cleary gets to show his wares far from the parish pump. What’s not to like?’
In a bid to temper the Cleary to the UK rumours, Penrith Panthers boss Brian Fletcher has told fans that there should be a counter movement to bring Mary back to Australia.
‘Last year on radio I said if we win in ’23, we’ll definitely win in ’24 and ’25,’ Fletcher said. ‘So don’t be afraid of next year. We’ve also got ’26 and ’27 to go.
‘And why I say that is, Ivan Cleary and Nathan Cleary are signed until the end of ’27.
‘It’s my job and the CEO of football, Matt Cameron, to extend that as far as we can.
‘Matt’s job also is he’s got to bring Mary back to Australia.’
Fowler supporters have clapped back at suggestions she should move for the sake of Cleary’s career in a series of mocking posts online.
‘It’s great that her boyfriend has a hobby,’ one supporter cheekily posted.
Another said: ‘Is that like, good? I wouldn’t know. I’ve never really watched men’s sports. Its just not as exciting.’
A third stated: ‘That’s pretty good for a man. Mary must be proud of him.’
As for the man himself, Cleary has never shot down the rumours linking him to the UK Super League and in an interview earlier this year said he would be open to it later in his career.
‘I’m not against it [a Super League move]. I have a pretty open mind to that kind of stuff,’ he said ahead of the World Cup Challenge match.
‘I think just being able to experience different cultures and different experiences is something I enjoy doing. I’m not closed off to that idea.’
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