Fools Gold: the constant calls for Clifford

Every week, win lose or draw there is a spray of keyboard warriors saying we need to get Clifford back in the side. And Clifford should be taking over the goal kicking from Drinkwater. And this happens win lose or draw.

Let's deal with the goal kicking first:

• Clifford kicks at 66.06% across his career
• Drinkwater kicks at 75.56% across his career (all this season)

'nuff said.

So let's talk general play. 

There's this weird aura around Clifford that he's got this glorious general play kicking game. He doesn't. 

• 40-20s in 2025: zero in 7 games
• 40-20s in 2024: one in 7 games

And his kicking as a whole? Clifford averages 228m/game in 2025. Meanwhile Clearly punches out 530m/game for the Panthers and Mitch Moses 555m/game - that's what great kicking looks like. And even Chad Townsend averages 304m/game at the Roosters 

He also utterly failed to ice the Panthers game with a field goal in golden point.

My 2 cents. His kicking is decent, but it's far from remarkable. Totally not worth picking him based on his kicking alone. 

As to his play at halfback. The team has won 57% of the games he's played in in 2025, and the team has won 41% as of the Storm game. He did though miss the Storm game, the Manly game & the Sharks game, all of which we lost by over 20 points. Even an avid Clifford fan would be hard pressed to say he'd have turned those games around.

In terms of other important stats for a halfback, Clifford in 2025 has:

• 0.33 try assists/game (Drinkwater has 1/game, Dearden 0.92/game, Purdue 0.42/game)
• 0.22 linebreak assists/game (Dearden has 1.33/game, Drinkwater 1/games, Purdue 0.67/game)
• 0.33 linebreaks/game (Purdue & Drinkwater both 0.83/game, Dearden 0.17/game)

(and if we drop back to 2024 stats, Drinkwater, Dearden & Chad all had better line break assists/game,  Clifford was 3rd of the 4 for both try assists/game, and 3rd of the 4 for linebreaks/game)

He also has a NRL career winning percentage of 41% (and that drops to 40% for the Cowboys). 

It's very hard to argue based on the stats above that Clifford is some sort of magic bullet for the side. 

My biggest frustration with Jake is his hands aren't on the ball enough - he doesn't direct the side, nor shape the attack. He doesn't play like a 7. Instead he crops up in odd spots for a halfback - chasing bombs & running holes close the line. Occasionally it sticks and he looks like a genius, but often he just seems to be MIA for halves or even games. 

I also think the Dearden-Purdue combo will continue to grow and get better. 

The article isn't meant to be a Jake bash. I do though think after 8 seasons in the NRL, having spent time under the coaching of some elite 7s (Paul Green, Jonathan Thurston & Andrew Johns), I'm not certain Clifford is the guy we can or should build a team around.