Wigan chief executive Kris Radlinski has made the bizarre claim that rugby league’s best player, Panthers star Nathan Cleary, would not make his first-choice team.
Amid speculation that Cleary may end up switching to Super League down the track due to his relationship with football star Mary Fowler who is based in the UK, the English champions who have a history of paying top dollar for recruits would be the obvious team to puruse the four-time Penrith premiership winner.
But Radlinksi made the outrageous claim that Cleary would not be able to crack the Wigan line-up due to the presence of young English half Harry Smith and former Eels utility back Bevan French.
“I will probably be the only club (CEO) in the world to say that Cleary wouldn’t get in our team,” Radlinski told SEN Radio.
“I love him as a player and I love him as a person (but) at the minute, I have Bevan French at six and a guy at number seven called Harry Smith who had an outstanding Grand Final.
“We have got him long-term and I truly believe that the is our future number seven.
“I love what Cleary has done, the relationship he has built with his father and what he has done for the game but I just don’t think he gets in our team.”
Wigan won the Super League grand final with a 9-2 victory over Hull KR to hold all three England trophies plus the World Club Challenge.
Penrith have pulled out but Cleary has called on the NRL to rescue the World Club Challenge by scheduling the match during the competition’s Magic Round.
The World Club Challenge remains the only trophy the Panthers have yet to win during their run of four straight NRL premierships, but the one-off match appears unlikely to go ahead in 2025.
Penrith have agreed to take part in the NRL’s season-opening matches in Las Vegas early next year – a timeslot usually reserved for the game that pits the premiers of the NRL and Super League against each other.
Panthers bosses, who saw their side suffer narrow defeats to St Helens in 2023 and Wigan this year, have indicated that arranging the match would be a logistical nightmare.
Wigan are due to play Warrington as part of the Las Vegas season opener and Radlinksi is open to switching the schedule so they face off with the Panthers at some stage in the pre-season.
“If we can play in a World Club Challenge game against one of the most outstanding teams of all time in the Penrith Panthers, no matter where in the world it is, we’ll take it,” he said.
“Will it be difficult with flights and recovery times? You can come up with a hundred excuses as to why it shouldn’t happen.
“If you ask my head coach would they want to play on the other side of the world at the drop of a hat, every single player would snatch your hand off.
“It’s a great privilege and of course it would be tiring but they put a man on the moon.
“If we can’t go to Australia or America to play a game of rugby, then we will do whatever it takes to get another crack.”
