‘I want to be a father’: Nathan Cleary echoes Mary Fowler’s sentiments on the future

“We’re both in the middle of our sporting journeys and enjoying that. When the day comes, I would absolutely love that. But yeah, it’s just not right now.”

In the streets of London, pictures of Nathan Cleary alongside Englishman Herbie Farnworth are on bus stops.

Marry Fowler and Nathan Cleary.Credit: Instagram

It’s the poster boy of Australian rugby league in a city that has somewhat lost touch with rugby league.

Over here, though, he’s Mary’s boyfriend.

“Someone said that to me today as well,” Cleary says as he bursts into laughter.

“They said: ‘oh, nice to meet you, but I just want to let you know, I love your girlfriend more’. And I was like ‘yeah, same’.

Nathan Cleary at Kangaroos training.Credit: NRL Photos

While his father Ivan, mother Bec and brother Jett are all flying to England to watch him play for Australia, Fowler, who is based in Manchester, won’t be at the game at Wembley on Saturday.

They will, however, reunite when the Kangaroos head north for the final two games of the series in Liverpool and Leeds.

Cleary is uncomfortable in the spotlight. You won’t find him doing any photo shoots or interviews alongside Fowler, and that’s the way they both want it.

There’s a shift in his demeanour as he transitions from talking about breaking down defences to breaking down his relationship.

‘They said: “Oh, nice to meet you, but I just want to let you know, I love your girlfriend more”.’

“Annoying at times”, is how he describes the attention on his romance.

“The footy stuff you just know that’s all part of it, but the private life stuff, that was probably a bit harder to adjust to. But Mary and I both spoke about it, that we didn’t want it to affect the way we live our lives.

“A lot of those things are out of your control, so it’s about controlling things that are in our control and not letting it drain our energy and just taking it in our stride. I think both of us are naturally quite private and introverted. We’re also doing our own different things in sport, and we don’t want to become just a big deal - us as a couple.”

Being back in England, Cleary is reminded by people of a long-standing rumour linking him to the Super League as a means of being closer to Fowler.

Mary Fowler has enjoyed a stellar start to her career.Credit: Getty Images

“Every three months that article comes out,” he says.

But in the not-too-distant future, Cleary will have a huge decision to make. He is off contract with the Penrith Panthers at the end of 2027.

That means, by this time next year, he will be preparing to enter NRL free agency. It’s not a certainty that he will extend his stay with the club he led to four-straight premierships.

“I’ve loved my time in Penrith, and it’s home to me,” he said.

Ivan and Nathan Cleary steered Penrith to four consecutive premierships. Credit: Getty Images

“I’m quite open to things in the future. Maybe having something different, but for the time being, yeah, I can’t really see it happening.

“I’ve said it a few times, like I’m open to things, and the last thing I want when I get to the end of my career is to have regrets. So yeah, we’ll see what happens.”

With the PNG Chiefs set to enter the NRL in 2028, an almighty challenge could present itself to both Cleary and his father - whose coaching contract with Penrith expires at the same time as his son.

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At the moment, however, that isn’t on his radar despite the opportunity to earn a lucrative tax-free contract.

“I’m not too sure,” he says about the possibility of linking with the Chiefs in the homeland of Fowler’s mother.

“It’s still such a long way away, and you want to see, you know, I would love to see PNG do well, but to me, it just seems like there’s so much to go before actually getting it off the ground and seeing what it’s going to look like.”

Few people would begrudge Cleary walking away from Penrith in pursuit of another challenge.

He’s done what no player in 60-odd years has done - leading a team to four titles in a row.

However, he insists the end of the streak this year hasn’t diluted his passion.

“I don’t ever feel like there’s a destination of ‘oh you’ve done it’ - you know what I mean?” Cleary says.

“I think the streak was probably more [something] that everyone else looked into. Honestly, at times, it didn’t feel like we were on a streak. We were just trying to get the next one and trying to improve. So it wasn’t until we actually lost and had a few discussions with the boys that we were able to look back and be like ‘wow, we’ve won the last four years, which is pretty crazy to think about’.