Nathan Cleary's greatness is often compared to legendary halfbacks like Johns and Thurston.
There are times when you think Nathan Cleary lacks the wondrous flair, knightly charisma, rugged creativity and genius imagination of Andrew Johns, and so he cannot be rated higher than the notorious Novocastrian as the greatest halfback to take hold of the strings and play puppeteer.
There are times when you think Nathan Cleary lacks the ghostly elusiveness, cowboy instinctiveness, rat-cunning and barking mongrel of Johnathan Thurston, and so he cannot be ranked above Townsville's tittering, talkative talisman as the finest No.7 who's ever lived and breathed life into the NRL.
There are times when you think of Ricky Stuart, and of Peter Sterling, and of Allan Langer, and of what they might have been with today's lightweight boots, and sticky balls, and nutrition that went beyond a pie and coupla beers, and proper fitness training, and softer rules, and perhaps they'd be the...