Newcastle forward Francis Manuleleua has made it his mission to muzzle Nathan Cleary as the Knights aim to claim the biggest scalp of their fairytale finals run by toppling Penrith.
Cleary’s fitness remains a mystery heading into Sunday’s preliminary final at Accor Stadium, with the halfback battling “a stress-related bone issue” in his foot.
The Penrith halfback complained of pain in the late stages of the Panthers’ 19-12 qualifying-final win over the Sydney Roosters a fortnight ago.
Assuming Cleary plays, Manuleleua is set to mark up on the four-time premiership-winning playmaker.
The Newcastle youngster played in the lower grades at the Panthers and is keen to make his mark.
“Cleary, he is obviously the one that leads their team and everything runs off him,” said Manuleleua.
“I think if we can keep him quiet and force other players to pick up the slack, then that’ll help us for this week.
“It’ll be a good challenge, I know a few boys there so it’d be good to get one over them.”
Few would have given Newcastle a chance after finishing seventh at the end of the regular season but finals wins over South Sydney and the Warriors in Auckland have propelled Justin Holbrook’s side into their first preliminary final since 2013.
The Knights will begin as firm outsiders with Trey Mooney, Dylan Brown and Daniel Saifiti still unavailable, but five-eighth Fletcher Sharpe is embracing Newcastle’s underdog status.
“That's been our mindset the last few weeks and to be honest we've been written off both games and for big parts of the year.
“Everyone within the four walls and this group's got great confidence in our footy and what that looks like.
“We're confident at the moment, we can beat whoever's in front of us, so that'll be no different next Sunday.”
