Casey McLean believes one of the keys to success is he’s not afraid to fail but it’s fair to ask if the State of Origin rookie can even remember what failing feels like.
McLean will play his second match for New South Wales on Wednesday night as the latest moment of unveiling for one of the game’s great new talents, with the Panthers centre achieving more by the first month of his 20s than some players do in a lifetime.
He leans on his family, friends and partner to keep his feet on the ground and given how quickly everything seems to happen to McLean they’ve had a job of it.
“I haven’t stopped smiling for the last couple of months. Being able to run out for one game, let alone a couple more, is a dream come true,” McLean said.
McLean’s rise to the game’s harshest arena has been rapid. (Getty Images: Brendan Thorne )
“I have to ride the highs when I can and they’re around, but being able to keep my ego in check — my close circle knows what I need to do that.”
It was not so long ago that all of this was still just a dream for McLean, when he was the son of a tomorrow which has now arrived.
He is the youngest player in this series, the harbinger of a new generation to remind us all of the inevitability of the future, seemingly here well ahead of time.
McLean played alongside Kieran Foran in last year’s Pacific Championships and when Foran made his New Zealand Test debut McLean was just three years old.
McLean was a New Zealand Test regular while still a teenager. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor )
When New South Wales teammate James Tedesco made his State of Origin debut, McLean was only ten and when a host of his future Panthers brethren geared up for the first season of what would become an ascension to untold footballing glories, creating a dynasty McLean will be charged with carrying forward, the Blacktown City product was just 13.
Back then he was like so many other boys who watched Origin and dreamed he could be part of it.
For him and his brother Jesse, 15 months older and now a mainstay of Penrith’s NSW Cup side, there were always two special favourites in sky blue when Origin flickered through to house McLean.
“You had the likes of Jarryd Hayne and those boys but for myself it was always the Morris brothers,” McLean said.
“My brother and I grew up and played all our footy together, seeing them do it on the biggest stage inspired us a lot to get to that point.”
The Morris twins were McLean’s favourite Origin players as a boy. (Getty Images: Mark Kolbe )
McLean’s arrival to that stage has been rapid. Two years ago, after just seven first grade appearances and six months after his 18th birthday, he scored four tries on Test debut for New Zealand.
Twelve months ago he secured a place starting in the centres for Penrith, scoring 19 tries in 29 matches since.
Two weeks ago, after Tolu Koula was knocked out by Kalyn Ponga midway through Origin I, he hit the field for New South Wales for the first time and in an eye-catching 23 minute cameo he confirmed, yet again, that he’s got the right stuff.
To his Origin and Penrith teammate Brian To’o, none of it — not the speed of his rise or the ease with which McLean has established himself as the first of a new generation of stars — has been a surprise.
But it still leaves To’o in wonder and, given To’o had not yet played first grade when he was McLean’s age, it has him feeling his own years.
“It’s not really a surprise. Case is one of those players who comes along once in a lifetime. He is a once in a lifetime player and person,” To’o said.
“He’s down to earth, he’s down for the boys and you can see the talent every time he steps on the field.
“It makes me feel so old, to see him doing it at his age.”
“His first taste of training with NRL, that was the first time I knew how special he was.
“When he first started, when I met him, he was really quiet and kept to himself. But once he hit the field at training you could hear his communication, the energy he brings to the team, it’s all so infectious.
“It’s why he’s got here today.”
McLean isn’t cruising by on talent alone because nobody at the Panthers does.
His attacking game, with his size, speed and balance, can take care of itself but he’s worked hard at his defence and in Origin that’s especially important — just ask the Morris brothers McLean idolised.
Those two scored 334 NRL tries between them but their greatest plays for New South Wales were often defensive ones.
McLean’s athleticism has stood out in the two years since his NRL debut. (Getty Images: Mark Kolbe )
Asking the same of any player, even one like McLean, is a tall order but his improvement on that side of the ball, through this season alone, has been marked.
It puts him in good stead for his match-up with Queensland and Roosters bruiser Robert Toia on Wednesday.
When the Tricolours met the Panthers earlier in the season, Toia got the better of McLean for an early try and nearly scored another shortly thereafter.
From there, Penrith did their thing with the blood and dancing, overturning the 4-0 deficit to run up a 40-4 victory.
It was just one bad moment on an evening filled with good ones but the determination to not let it happen again when the two meet again in Origin II is why McLean is here as the fastest starter of the new generation.
He is the result of absolute commitment meeting irrepressible talent and that binds him to what seems, even in these early days, like a glorious fate.
“It comes down to training. Every rep in training, you have to treat it like it’s a game. I suppose it’s backing your skills, your tracking angles and tackle technique,” McLean said.
“Just not being afraid to fail, that’s the big thing, you have to challenge yourself, and it’ll come out.
“(But) it’s all words until you prove it through actions.”
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