“That was Andrew Johns-esque on the weekend.”

Johns himself has pinpointed the next stage of Cleary’s evolution as an elite playmaker centring on playing alongside developing teammates and “dumbing things down” to accommodate them.

Against the Broncos, that was seen in Cleary straightening up Penrith’s attack with his own running game, while Penrith’s ball-runners produced fewer unders lines back against the grain.

“When he’s taking them on, he’s such a damaging runner when he’s on,” Martin said. “He’s not to be taken lightly and when he [runs] it only benefits the team.”

Australian front-rower Lindsay Smith added of Penrith’s dialled-down approach: “Every week, you’re trying to simplify things. Footy, as much as a lot of things go into it, it’s a simple game at the end of the day.

“That was a special Nathan Cleary performance. Any time anyone likes to get into the game physically early, that definitely goes a long way to performing well.

“Off the back of that, some of the plays he came up with and his kicking game was just sensational.”

Cleary’s performance came amid improved efforts right across the board from the Panthers heading into a pivotal Origin series when he, Martin, Isaah Yeo, Brian To’o and potentially Dylan Edwards will all be away on NSW duty.

“I think that was a really good stepping stone back to the footy that we play,” Martin said.

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“I think the couple of weeks before that, we certainly hadn’t been getting the game on that we want.

“It’s really great to see, but you can’t take that for granted. We’ve got to do that again, work hard through the week and hopefully build from there.”

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