Penrith Panthers star halfback Nathan Cleary hasn't quite started the 2025 NRL season the way he would have wanted to, and neither have his club.
The four-time defending premiers have won just two of their first eight games this year, and Cleary turned in an average performance in their latest loss to the Manly Sea Eagles over the weekend.
The Panthers need to get on a run of wins in a hurry, but it looks a long way away given their form.
Speaking on this week's episode of The Loose Carry Podcast - Zero Tackle's weekly show chatting all things rugby league - coach Lee Addison said Cleary's form could be put down to James Fisher-Harris and Jarome Luai's departures.
โPeople might look at Cleary and think he is a little bit out of form,โ Addison said.
โNumber one, he has lost one of the best forward leaders in the competition in James Fisher-Harris.
โAgain, since 1908, and since 1895, you need your forwards. You need your forwards to go forward to unleash your backline, and that is still the case.
โA forward leader has left the Panthers, and also, in Cleary's defence, the person who has partnered him not just in the NRL, but in junior grades coming through the system has left him, and they have put somebody else in there.
โMost of the Penrith side through the years has come through the development system, and that has been dismantled by the salary cap over time. Every year we have been saying Penrith are going to fall off a cliff, it's a bit like the patient who says I'm going to die, eventually they are going to die, and I think Penrith have got to that point now as well.โ
The off-season departures have had the potential to cause headaches for the Panthers for years, but the club have always found a way through them.
The departures of Fisher-Harris and Luai were always going to hit hard, but their drop off has been more extreme than even the most pessimistic might have been able to forecast.
For that, Zero Tackle analyst Darren Parkin flagged a different issue, looking at the number of extra games Penrith have played over the past five years, where they have won four premierships and lost the other grand final.
โSpeaking to a lot of players who have been in strong sides that have been good for a lot of time, over the course of that period, you almost play another season, that's 20 more games than some other sides. It's longer campaigns, you're then coming back a little bit later [to pre-season] and it is taxing,โ Parkin said.
โIn a five-season period, everyone has played five, and you've played six. I think there is an element of that in terms of physical fatigue.โ
The Panthers also started the year in Las Vegas, and played last year's pre-season challenge in England.
They clash with the Brisbane Broncos at Magic Round this weekend.
