On a Sunday afternoon in Auckland, a young man named Jett Cleary stepped onto an NRL field for the first time, carrying the weight of a famous surname and the quiet hopes of a family who had crossed the Tasman to witness it. The match against Newcastle was shaped almost immediately by a moment of violence and consequence — a high shot that reduced the Knights to twelve men before the game had found its footing. These are the conditions under which careers begin and reputations are tested: not in comfort, but in the unscripted pressure of live sport, where lineage offers no protection and only