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I’m a one-eyed Manly fan. There, it’s out of the way. Now let me put something out there: last night’s loss wasn’t a fluke.
Occasionally you see a team lose badly in their first hit out, like the Broncos on Thursday night, and it gets chalked up to a bit of rust, an interrupted pre-season, or just a young side warming into the season.
None of those apply to Friday night’s version of the Manly Sea Eagles.
For the first time in a decade, the Sea Eagles looked old. And I’m not talking ‘experienced’ old, I’m talking decrepit old. I can’t think of a single player in maroon on Friday night that played any better than average.
Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran both had their moments, and Brett Stewart looked fairly dangerous with the ball in hand, but the rest of the team just seemed to be along for the ride. The forwards struggled to contain Parramatta’s pack, which left little to no time for the halves to operate. And even when the halves did get some time and space, the backs were off.
Cherry-Evans said in his post-game interview that he believes the team can bounce back from this, but I’m not so sure.
I’m not taking anything away from Parramatta’s performance. The game was close at half time, and then gone at the 50 minute mark. The Eels looked strong, fit, and fast – a combination they’ve lacked since 2009 – and they’ll give a lot of teams some very big headaches this year.
They’ll play finals in 2015. And, based on what we saw last night, Manly won’t.
I hope I’m wrong, but there’s a feeling about the Sea Eagles this year. Whether it’s the injuries, or the contract talks surrounding Cherry-Evans and Foran, something is off with the Sea Eagles. The culture isn’t right. The players don’t seem to be playing for each other anymore.
These are extremely hard words to write as a life-long Sea Eagles fan, but the run is over. They’ve given us eight brilliant years that saw four grand finals and two premierships, and I speak for every Manly fan when I say we enjoyed the ride. But the ride had to come to an end.
Just like your favourite roller-coaster, you eventually arrive back at the station and have to line up again. Manly is at the station, and we can only hope the line-up to get back on won’t be a long one.
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