Cleary ready for perfect Storm

Ivan Cleary insists son Nathan is ready to wear whatever Melbourne throw at him in today’s preliminary final, backing his team to heed the lessons of last year’s decider.

Nathan Cleary will again be the focus of the NRL at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, with the Storm making no secret of their plans to pressure the star No.7.

Cleary’s kicking has been the story of the finals series, with all attention on it since he bombed South Sydney into submission in their round-robin match last month.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy refused to go down the path of Wayne Bennett yesterday, responding ‘‘next question’’ when asked about the talk of kick protection.

But after Christian Welch’s linespeed made life hard for Cleary in last year’s grand final and State of Origin, Bellamy is happy to admit that remains at the top of the Storm’s radar.

‘‘Obviously, we want to try and do that,’’ Bellamy said.

‘‘If he gets his own way (bombing) they’re going to be hard to catch and that’s not what we want to do to our back three.

‘‘Any game you try to put pressure on the kicker.

‘‘But obviously because of Nathan’s great ability to make them hard to catch, we’ve practised that a bit this week.

‘‘We want to make sure we give him as less time as possible to pick his spot and hit them as good as he wants to.’’

Penrith know it’s coming too. ‘‘You don’t have to prepare Nat too much,’’ Ivan said.

‘‘He’s played enough footy and big games to understand what’s going to be coming at him.’’

Ivan Cleary also backed five-eighth Jarome Luai to return to form, confident he saw signs of a return to his best last week against Parramatta.

Nor is the coach concerned by Melbourne’s long-held ability to silence x-factors in big games, after they did the best job of any team this year on Tom Trbojevic a fortnight ago.

‘‘They play two completely different positions in Nat and Turbo,’’ Cleary said.

‘‘I think that the Turbo example was probably product of the whole team not really getting a game on that particular night.’’

Instead he has backed Penrith to learn their lessons from last year’s grand final, when they suffered first-half stage fright and trailed 26-0 before a late fightback.

‘‘There’s a bit of an old adage you can lose one to win one,’’ Cleary said.

‘‘But it’s not so much about that it’s actually about just learning the subtle differences in those big games.

‘‘The speed of the line that moves. Just lots of little things.

‘‘It’s part of the journey and the story ... all those little experiences allow you to prepare yourself a little bit better for the times ahead.’’

Melbourne are gunning for their fifth title decider in six years and for the first time this season Bellamy has been able to select a full strength team for the showdown.

Their only injury concern, speedster Josh Addo-Carr, has overcome a hamstring issue.

‘‘We’ve got most of the guys available — basically our strongest side so that’s worked out pretty well,’’ Bellamy said yesterday.

‘‘We’ve had a good preparation this week and the boys really enjoyed the last week off because it was a bit of a mental let-down so I think it’s been good.’’

While the Storm put their feet up Penrith were put through a brutal semi-final exchange with Parramatta before winning 8-6.Cleary said his injured players winger Brian To’o (knee) and second-rower Viliame Kikau (ankle) would play.

To’o sat out the the Eels win as a precautionary measure but was now raring to go.Melbourne are in the midst of their first finals series since the retirement of captain Cameron Smith, who led them to eight grand finals.

Claiming a record-equalling 19 straight wins this season and with Brandon Smith and Harry Grant filling his hooking duties with aplomb, it appears like they will also handle the pressure of a preliminary final.

Bellamy said Smith’s absence was always going to be felt most in clutch finals games but was confident they had him covered. AAP