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Veteran Manly prop Brent Kite admits there’s plenty of bad feeling towards Des Hasler around the NRL club, and the Sea Eagles players are excited at the prospect of taking on their former coach and Canterbury on Friday.
The round eight clash between Hasler’s new club and the team he guided to the 2011 premiership has been the most eagerly-awaited match of the season and a bumper crowd is expected at ANZ Stadium.
Despite calls from the coaching staff to try and treat the encounter like it was just another game, Kite insists there is plenty of anticipation around the camp.
“We’ve been told to keep a lid on it, but the truth is everyone is excited, and it adds a bit of extra spice to what would otherwise just be a round eight game,” Kite said.
“It’s good for the game, it’s good for the telly, and it’s good for some of the younger guys who’ve not been involved in some of these bigger games so it does have a bit of added value.”
A larger than usual number of Manly supporters are expected to make the journey to the match and let their feelings known to Hasler, who walked out on them in November and is rumoured to be trying to entice Kieran Foran to join him at the Bulldogs.
“The general feeling is that there is no love lost there,” Kite said.
“I can only speak for myself and say I’ve had words with Dessie and I think we’re in a pretty good place.
“I’ve thought about him in the lead up to this game and what he might pull out of the bag.
“They’ll be the underdogs and Des will be loving that. But he’s a professional and won’t let anything affect them.”
Manly are desperate to keep Foran, but speculation remains that the 21-year-old will be at Belmore next year, despite denials from Hasler, who claimed he’d not met with Foran last week.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Hasler said.
“All that can be said is that those players have to make up their minds what they want to do, and the rest is speculation.”
Kite said he remained hopeful Foran would stay at Brookvale, and denied he’d been affected by discussions about his future.
“I had Kieran around for dinner the other night and he’s in a good place, I’d like to think he’ll stay,” Kite said.
“He’s probably got a lot of people in his ear telling him what to do, but my advice to him was to do what is best for him.”
Manly coach Geoff Toovey said he doesn’t believe Hasler’s knowledge of his former players would make a difference to the game.
“Most coaches know the strengths and weaknesses of all the players in the competition,” he said.
“There’s no drama there. You look at the top teams in the last few years like Melbourne – they don’t change anything, they just do it better than anyone else. That’s what we plan to do.”
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