Steve Deane: Cleary's day of judgment set out for Sydney park

Ivan Cleary. Photo / Getty Images

It's unclear whether Graham Henry ever really did utter the immortal line "judge me on the World Cup".

An exhaustive Google search fails to uncover the source of the famous quote, while the collective memory of the Herald's rugby department is a bit hazy on exactly when our Ted may have muttered that particular phrase.

What is abundantly clear is that Henry wasn't in fact judged on the 2007 World Cup. He received a free pass and is now in charge of averting a national disaster. Oh goody.

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary has presided over a couple of disasters of his own.

The two-and-out finals campaign of 2007, when the Warriors finished fourth but lost at home to the Eels and were then belted out of sight by the Cowboys in Townsville springs to mind.

Then there was last week's shocker in Brisbane, and we won't even get started on the entire 2009 season.

The question of how we judge Cleary will be front and centre should his six-year reign as Warriors coach end with another finals failure against the Tigers in Sydney tonight.

There's no doubt the club is a much more solid, robust entity than it was pre-Cleary. His work in helping establish the Warriors as a consistently credible force should never be undervalued.

Pre-Cleary the Warriors had their moments, but they also flirted with being a national embarrassment on a regular enough basis.

Four finals appearances in six years is good going by NRL standards. Just ask John Cartwright, John Lang or Matt Elliott. But under Cleary, the Warriors have won just two of seven finals matches. In the big games, they've frequently wilted.

That's been the theme of a season that began with a choke in front of a big crowd at Eden Park, while crucial regular-season matches against the Tigers, Broncos and Dragons all ended in hard luck defeats.

The gritty final-round victory over the Cowboys suggested the team might have turned a corner, but if they did, it led smack into a brick wall.

Last week's humiliation was pretty much same old, same old from the Warriors under Cleary.

Now, they have just one more chance to get it right.

Cleary has never asked to be judged on the big games. That may be a good thing. If his Warriors don't win tonight, such a judgment might be harsh.