 During the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand, Cleal captained what was a makeshift Manly side that was missing 6 regular first grade players to a famous 30-0 win over the Lions at Brookvale Oval.Manly had gone into the mid-week match missing captain Paul Vautin, centre Michael O'Connor, prop forward Phil Daley (all rested for the following weekends first Ashes series test against the Lions), as well as fullback Dale Shearer, winger David Ronson and hooker Mal Cochrane.Cleal had a point to prove in the game against the Lions after controversially being left out of Australia's squad for the Ashes series.