Penrith Panthers vs Parramatta Eels, Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai, record,

Eight years ago at Leichhardt Oval, Nathan Cleary was almost the hero.

Having scored or assisted on four of their six tries, it was only natural the Panthers would go back to their classy playmaker with the score locked at 30-all, the game on the line.

For a moment it looked like Cleary, then just 16 years old, had won the SG Ball Grand Final for Penrith.

Instead, his 35-metre field goal attempt bounced off the top of the right post, landing back in the field of play as another one of the game’s soon-to-be superstars stepped up.

Swatting one defender to the side and then beating four more, Latrell Mitchell scored his second try in six minutes to seal a 34-30 comeback win for the Roosters.

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On that day, it would be Mitchell’s turn to have his moment and there were plenty more of those to come for the now 25-year-old, inspiring South Sydney on its recent finals run.

But in defeat, there was something about Cleary’s performance that afternoon that stands out to Penrith’s pathways manager Lee Hopkins, even to this day.

“It was a really high-quality game of football,” Hopkins told foxsports.com.au.

“You could just see that was the first real point where you go, ‘Well, OK, there’s something here, we’re going to have something here. It’s going to take time but we’re going to have something’.”

In just over two years, Cleary was making his NRL debut as a fresh-faced teenager against the Melbourne Storm. There were no tries or assists from the 18-year-old, no flashy highlight-reel plays.

But there were 36 tackles — the most by a half on debut since records were kept by the Fox Sports Lab in 1998. Proof, even if it was not clear at the time, that Cleary was made for first grade.

Not everyone is. Penrith’s production line is the envy of the rest of the competition but not every promising young prospect is guaranteed to be a success at the top level.

Jim Jones, the club’s recruitment guru and longest serving employee, knows it better than most.

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“You never know whether they’re going to be NRL players,” he told foxsports.com.au.

“We’re lucky we’ve got the Academy out here and great staff and our programs, they’re coming from Ivan and the head coaches and senior staff and filter back through the grades. “It’s up to the boys to do it. They’ve always got some ability but it’s hard to tell who’s the one who will go…