At 24 Nathan Cleary is so far ahead of where his contemporaries were at the same age that he is now a realistic chance of going down as the greatest halfback to ever play the game.
Cleary turns 25 in November and is arguably playing better at this stage of his career than his rivals for the greatest NRL era halfback ever in Andrew Johns, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk.
His stats also compare favourably with the great halfbacks who finished their careers before or just after the NRL era began in 1998, most notably Peter Sterling, Allan Langer and Ricky Stuart.