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The South Sydney Rabbitohs have secured the services of Glenn Stewart for the next two seasons after the Manly back rower put pen to paper with the famous Redfern club.
Stewart’s departure from the Sea Eagles doesn’t come as a complete surprise. Contract negotiations between Manly and the New South Wales and Australian representative have been making headlines for some time now, and they’ve appeared far from rosy.
Though Manly would have dearly loved to have held onto Stewart, the club was struggling to fit him under their salary cap. With boom halfback Daly Cherry-Evans expected to sign a lucrative contact upgrade soon, retaining Stewart proved impossible.
The pressure on Manly’s cap was clearly too great to overcome and Stewart and his management grew increasingly frustrated. The move to the Bunnies will affect the fortunes of two clubs in drastically different ways.
For Souths, the signing of Stewart fills a void. Watching the Rabbitohs play the Bulldogs last Friday afternoon, it was apparent that the club is in desperate need of some veteran leadership. In particular, the Bunnies need a cool head under pressure.
With the game on the line and the Rabbitohs in perfect field position for a winning field-goal attempt, five-eighth John Sutton ran blindside from the fourth-tackle play-the-ball. The Bunnies were subsequently tackled short of the tryline and stranded near touch, with Sutton’s decision leaving his club in a terrible position to attempt a match-winner.
Nathan Merritt was forced to attempt a miracle one-pointer instead of the regulation attempt that would have been on offer had Sutton simply taken a hit-up in the middle of the field. He missed.
The Dogs then marched the ball down the field, set Trent Hodkinson up in front of the sticks, kicked the field goal, and won the game. The Bunnies showed poor match awareness and paid for it dearly.
One would like to think that Glenn Stewart’s experience, leadership and calmness under pressure wouldn’t have allowed that situation to unfold. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Stewart is nominated as the Bunnies skipper, with the club’s decision-making improving because of it.
Stewart’s current club has been one of the best teams in the competition for a very long time now. In the past seven seasons, they have made four grand finals and won two premierships. A large part of that success has been due to their star back rower.
Stewart’s rare skill-set provides the Sea Eagles with plenty of flexibility and potency. In attack, he has the ability to play as a strong ball-running forward or as an extra five-eighth, with his unique ball-playing ability for a player his size proving a major weapon for Manly over the years.
Stewart’s propensity to pressure opposing halves has combined with his incredible work rate to form the backbone of a Manly defence that is always among the best in the competition. He is an incredible talent, but I can’t help but feel that his absence will be felt most off the field.
It may be a cliché, but Glenn Stewart is the heart and soul of the northern beaches football club.
The reverence with which Manly players talk about Stewart is astonishing. After hearing Anthony Watmough and Kieran Foran discuss the back rower, you are left with no doubt how much Stewart means to the club and his teammates.
Culture is an important part of football clubs, especially successful ones. It’s often said that the Sea Eagles changeroom feels like a band of brothers, and while that makes sense considering Stewart’s brother Brett plays at fullback, the bond goes way beyond two players.
Manly have been a very tight-knit group in recent seasons, and it will be interesting to see how that dynamic is affected.
With the senior Stewart off to the Bunnies, it raises some interesting questions for Manly. Will brother Brett stay put? Will the culture of the club be affected? Will Daly Cherry-Evans and his rumoured $1 million contract cause division in the changeroom? Can the team overcome the loss of a true one of a kind on the park?
In the meantime, you can only applaud the Rabbitohs for the signing.