Nathan Cleary says he didn't hesitate accepting the co-captaincy from his coach dad as part of Penrith's six-man leadership group.
Cleary was last month named among the Panthers batch of leaders by Ivan alongside James Maloney, James Tamou, Isaah Yeo, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Josh Mansour.
The 21-year-old is approaching only his fourth NRL season and will become the youngest player in the league to hold a leadership position in round one.
But the NSW State of Origin halfback said neither his relative inexperience or relationship with his dad was any concern in taking the role.
"I think I'm ready to take that next step as a leader and as I said, it's not like I'm the out-and-out captain," Cleary said.
"I've got a lot of help around me and I think it's a good leadership group and I am halfback of the team so I have to be a leader in that as well.
"Dad kind of spoke about it with me and brought it up out of the blue ... He gave me reasons for why everyone was in the group.
"There wasn't too much hesitation there and the way he explained it, it made a lot of sense."
Cleary got through 40 minutes in Saturday's 20-0 trial loss to Parramatta, which doubled as the Panthers' last game before the two teams meet again in round one.
While Ivan has been a keen observer of most of Nathan's NRL matches, the trial marked the first time the two have worked together as player and coach since the junior Cleary's days in under-sixes soccer.
"It just felt normal. I didn't really think about it on the field until he was talking at halftime," Nathan said.
"He just feels like a coach in here and my dad outside of here."
Crucially, Nathan said he got through the game fine after undergoing minor ankle surgery early in the pre-season and skipping last week's trial against South Sydney.
"I didn't think of it out there, so that was a positive sign," he said.
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