But the nephew of former NSW State of Origin second-rower Noel 'Crusher' Cleal has nothing but respect for his uncle.

"Everyone knows a lot about him so they usually ask whether he still chases a lot of pigs and he does ... he still loves it," the 26-year-old said.

"He was always an idol of mine growing up. He definitely had an influence on me."

'Crusher' played 198 matches in the Australian Rugby League throughout the 80s and represented New South Wales 12 times, but Joss is more than happy to talk about him.

"I don't get sick of it; me and him are pretty good mates so anytime someone wants to talk about him, I'm happy to," he said.

"The one thing he always taught us was to be humble."

Cleal made the move from the Wauchope Blues to Port City Breakers for their 2021 Group 3 rugby league campaign.

But he has only just returned from back-to-back hamstring injuries which punctuated his season.

"I didn't have a very good start," he admitted.

"I hurt my left hamstring playing for North Coast (in March), then came back and played one game and did my right one, but we're starting to build a bit of momentum now so it's good."

The Cleals grew up in the north-western NSW town of Warialda and Joss always thought he'd be challenging his uncle on who could chase the most pigs.

Then the opportunity to move east came up.

"I never, ever thought I'd live on the coast and it's only that Noel lives over here that I've moved here and it's been good to spend a few years with him," he said.

"I grew up in Goondiwindi and Warialda and played down at Tumbarumba then went across to Parkes and coached back home at Warialda so I've been around a bit."

He said he had enjoyed being a part of the Port City club since he received the phone call from coach Dan Kemp.

"Kempy is one of the superior coaches in the group so I went across to Port and playing with players of the calibre of Richie Roberts, Chook Fowler and Jake Mac all make my job easy," he said.

Port City are currently well in the mix for the Group 3 rugby league finals and Cleal said they were starting to build momentum.

They suffered an injury crisis at the start of the season which had resulted in inconsistent performances.

"We can't catch Wauchope, but if we can finish in the top three we're still building on combinations. We're a side that was put together that hadn't played any footy together at all," Cleal said.

"One of our aims is to slow the play down and focus on getting everything right; all that attention to detail."

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