None of the stuff going on at Manly will hurt the team’s chances of winning the premiership. In fact, it will probably improve their chances.
There is nothing like the thought that their time together is nearing an end to drive a group of players to win a title. As long as they’re a good team – and Manly is that and way more – it should act as motivation.
There is a lot of information coming out of various sections of the Manly camp and sources close to it in regard to the value of players’ contracts, requests for releases and disagreements between the players and management etceteras.
Along with some misinformation and agenda-driven bias in the delivery, no doubt.
But none of it is affecting the form of the team on the field. If it was going to affect it, we would have seen it happen by now and the Sea Eagles would be somewhere other than on top of the competition table.
There will be no effect that way, because at the end of the day the gripes the players have are not with each other. Sure, there are player cliques, or whatever you want to call it, at Manly. Some players get on well with some teammates and aren’t close to others, but so what?
That happens in all football clubs, in all forms of employment, in all walks of life. It doesn’t mean you can’t work with each other for a common goal. It’s amazing how some people think that is capable of bringing a football team like Manly undone.
The last thing players are going to do is ruin their own season by fighting among themselves – particularly when there is no good reason. The beefs some of the players have are with management – not their teammates.
The only real trick anyone has got to pull off is for Geoff Toovey, the coach, to ensure he doesn’t get tied too closely to any player retention decisions other players don’t appreciate.
Toovey appears to have done that so far. He is the coach, so he obviously must have plenty to do with such decisions, but he seems to have been able to distance himself from any drama. At least that’s how it looks from the outside.
Players train too hard and bash their bodies against the opposition for too long over a 26-round season to let anything stand in the way of them getting something out of it in the finals series, if they are good enough. Maybe even winning a grand final.
We’re arriving at the business end of the season now. The blinkers go on as players focus even harder on their goals, if they are within reach. If they are already out of reach, then a season can go to pot, but that is obviously not the case with the Sea Eagles. They are looking like the competition favourites that they are.
What the Manly team is going to look like next year remains to be seen. We know Glenn Stewart is going to South Sydney, but we can only guess how much additional movement there might be.
Personally, I think things will settle down to a large degree over the next few weeks, and that the core of next year’s team won’t look much different to what it does this year.
If Manly weren’t planning to offer Steve Matai a new contract then it would be unfair of the club to deny him a release from the final year of his deal so he could accept a long-term offer from the Warriors. He has given the Sea Eagles good service.
But the latest word is that the club wants to extend Matai’s contract beyond next year. It’s going to be interesting to see how his situation and those of several other Manly players work out.
There are a number of player who will come off contract at the end of next season, and there could be some serious movement then. That’s another reason why the players will be determined to take advantage of the opportunity they have to win this year’s premiership.
You can’t be sure of getting another chance like the one they have now.
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