At a local park in Auckland six years ago, a scrawny 13-year-old son of a gun picked up a league ball for the first time – taking on older teenagers in an open age game that would be the making of a teenage prodigy.

"I got absolutely smashed," Cleary told Fairfax Media. "I was only little. I played one game in open age, first game of footy ever. That was pretty eye-opening. I was like 'Oh my god'. I was playing against kids with beards. It was pretty crazy."

Despite growing up in a rugby league family and having his father, Ivan, as the coach of the local NRL team the Warriors, Cleary was attracted to soccer.

It wasn't until he turned 13 did he give away the round ball game, making the switch to a sport that saw him more commonly referred to as "Ivan's son" than by his christian name.

The family name no doubt opened some doors, but it also saw some slammed in his face as he dealt with the jealousy of those who believed he was receiving special treatment for who he was rather than what he could do on a football field.

"There are always going to be those people out there," Cleary said. "It really did get to me at the start but then you learn to deal with it."

As a promising Panthers junior, whose father was the coach of the NRL team, Cleary had a clause written into his contract that would allow him to leave the club if his old man was to depart.

He had every right to leave the club after Ivan Cleary lost his job at the end of 2015. However, in a moment that proved his independence from his dad, the halfback had the clause removed from his new contract.

"I think it was half way through the year it started to become real that I was a genuine shot at playing first grade," Cleary said.

"That's when we changed contracts. Penrith was always going to be a good opportunity for me to break into first grade so I was happy to change that. I remember at the start of last year I was speaking to dad and had just signed that new contract. We said that I could have a fair crack at this – maybe 2018, maybe that's the year I could crack first grade and make a career out of it.

"Then last year it all just fell into place. It's still so surreal. I think about it every now and then and think 'That's me on the TV'. I'm playing NRL. It's pretty awesome. I've loved being under Hook [Anthony Griffin]. He's being real helpful. I'm so grateful for the opportunity he gave me because ultimately he was the one that threw me in. He had to make some tough decisions."

Cleary knew it was inevitable that comparisons to his father would be raised if he managed to play in the NRL. Even his teammates, some of whom knew the 19-year-old when he was the club's ball boy, naturally looked at him as the son of their former coach.

But after proving himself as a genuine superstar in the making, it didn't take long for him to earn the respect of the playing group.

"After those first few games they kind of all just went away from my dad," Cleary said.

"I appreciated that. Everyone said it – there was this hype around that I was Ivan's son. After the first few games there was more of a focus on what I could do as an individual. I had grown up with it all my life so I was used to it.

"Last year was pretty crazy. The year before I was just cheering them on like a supporter, then the next year I'm playing alongside them. It was pretty surreal. Even the people we were playing against, I was watching them since I was two or three years old. It was pretty crazy."