STRENGTHS:

+ Clean hands
+ Consistency
+ Endurance
+ Inside game
+ Power
+ Work rate

IMPROVEMENTS:

- Composure
- Kicking

It is little surprise that Cleary is such a consistent accumulator of possessions, with his strong inside game balanced by an equally powerful running capacity. The core of his game starts at stoppage, where Cleary is constantly found at the bottom of packs cleanly extracting the ball and dishing it out by hand.

Unlike many other, more flashy midfielders who come through the pathway, Cleary is also prepared to get stuck in defensively. In this year's National Championships, he averaged 6.8 tackles and 11.3 contested possessions to go with disposal hauls of 24, 28, 29, and 36 - highlighting his constant effort and ball winning prowess.

At 182cm, Cleary is relatively well built and has the strength to break tackles. He also gets to the outside on the back of a strong running capacity, highlighted by his 6:06 2km time trial. Having played on a wing last year, Cleary is capable of staying involved away from the contest, and also combines well with teammates in transition.

Despite having little trouble getting his hands on the ball away from the contest, much of Cleary's growth areas observed in his outside game. He could certainly do with more polish when it comes to kicking, where he tends to dump the ball long or blaze away under pressure.

Lowering his eyes was a focus of Cleary's preseason, especially when carrying the ball at full tilt. He also seemed to favour going by hand at times this year, lacking the confidence in his kicking. Though, to his credit, many of his deficiencies were ironed out to an extent throughout the year, in which he displayed notable improvement.

Elsewhere, Cleary could look to further enhance his hurt factor with more scoreboard impact. He often launches scoring chains and posted good numbers for score involvements this year, but splitting the big sticks is certainly something he can add to his developing outside craft.