If ever there was a perfect time for Geoff Toovey to call for an investigation into the Manly Sea Eagles, it’s now.
After finishing second on the ladder despite the internal dramas which threatened to rip the club apart, the Sea Eagles crashed out of the finals in straight sets.
Only the most fanatical Manly supporter would have entered this season confident that the club could add to recent titles won in 2008 and 2011, continuing a three-year trend of triumphing on Labour Eve.
Let’s now investigate what went right and wrong for the Sea Eagles in 2014.
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
Final ladder position: second (16 wins, 8 losses, +103 differential)
After finals: fifth
What went right?
Once again the Sea Eagles showed why they are the most consistent side of the last decade when it comes to finals appearances, qualifying for September for the tenth consecutive year and finishing in the top four for the fourth year running.
For most of the second half of the season the club was on track to secure its first minor premiership since 1997, until a final-round loss to the Cowboys put paid to those hopes, instead having to settle for second.
This all came despite a spate of issues which threatened to derail the club, including the news that Glenn Stewart would leave for South Sydney at season’s end, as well as rumours of other players also wanting out.
What went wrong?
In addition to Glenn Stewart announcing that he had signed with the Rabbitohs for next season, he was also struck down with an ankle injury in Round 8 which sidelined him for the rest of the season.
His absence, along with those of Jamie Buhrer and Matt Ballin towards the back end of the season conspired against the Sea Eagles, as they lost five of their last seven matches to end the year.
Best win: defeated the Sydney Roosters 8-0 at Allianz Stadium in Round 4
After copping five losses at the hands of the Roosters in 2013, the Sea Eagles were out to ensure their losing streak against the Tricolours didn’t balloon out to six.
The Sea Eagles may have ended their curse against their grand final nemesis from last season, but they didn’t do it in the most dominant fashion – instead holding out for an 8-0 win.
Daly Cherry-Evans, who was judged to be best afield in their loss in the decider last year, was also best for the Sea Eagles as they exacted some revenge for last October’s bitter loss.
It also came after his halves partner Kieran Foran suggested that Mitchell Pearce, the opposing halfback, would one day become the greatest halfback in the game, thus firing last year’s Clive Churchill Medallist up for the match.
Worst loss: lost to the Brisbane Broncos 36-10 at Suncorp Stadium in Round 12
The Sea Eagles suffered their heaviest defeat of the year when they went down to the Brisbane Broncos by 26 points in the Sunshine Capital the weekend after the first State of Origin match.
The Sea Eagles had fallen behind 14-0 after 16 minutes and trailed 20-4 at halftime. They lost Cherry-Evans and Anthony Watmough to injury and the final score of 36-10 marked their worst defeat to the Queensland powerhouse since a 38-12 loss in 2005.
The future
With Glenn Stewart having departed, and Watmough possibly set to follow, the Sea Eagles face the prospect of a long-term rebuild after the longest unbroken streak of finals appearances in the NRL.
This stretch included four grand finals, of which the club won two, in their most successful period since the Northern Eagles merger disbanded in 2002. After so long, it appears that their time at the top could be coming to an end.
Jason King has announced his retirement, and there are also no notable signings for the club ahead of the 2015 season. It will be left to the ageing Jamie Lyon and the rest of the team skeleton to keep the team in premiership contention.
But the way I see it, the club could be headed for a slide down the ladder in the coming years, especially with so much experience set to leave.
jn
Guest
Give the youth a go and get rid of injury prone whinging has beens. Look at Manlys history Fulton.Vautin and others got shown the door to other clubs when their time was up. Manly needs to plan for the future now, the club comes before old footballers 3 year contract retirement plans. Hope Watmough goes to the eels they can have all his loose carries and average 3 penalties a game he gives away. Matiai and stewart will only become more injury prone. Chop them Manly does not need to carry them.
Tim Schuster
Roar Rookie
The loss of Kite, Rose, Kingy's dramatic loss of form killed us. We just couldn't carry those losses as their replacements were not up to it. As a group our forwards were rag dolled, only Lawrence was good but it's not his style to put on dominant hits and intimidate. Starling is a bench prop at best but is useful and should be retained. Hasson is not good enough and should be shown the door. Would it unbalance the team to put the extremely mobile Lawrence into the second row to give us more grunt in the pack?. His second row partner would need to be a ballplayer
Tim Schuster
Roar Rookie
The best strategy is to release those who want to go and preserve the no d%c^heads policy and winning club culture. We then accept mid table obscurity for 2-3 years as we bring younger players on. As the young talent is bedded in we then have a real tilt at the title in years 4-5 using backended contracts to supplement the talent with a few guns. If Cherry gets too expensive it might be impossible to spend 2million on both him and Foran. So Cherry might have to go. Foran is Manly through and through and I'd love him to spend his career here. Cherry too, but realistically he'll get too expensive for us as someone will offer ridiculous money. I hope the crowds support Manly during the rebuild and get to Brooky. Crowds of 5000 to some games are possible if not.
Ivan
Guest
I think we have a bright future with or without the old guard at Manly, mostly because of the talented youngsters we have coming up. Sure there'll be a big loss in the retirement of our forwards but when we have people like jack littlejohn, jake trbojevic and justin horo evening out the forward pack with symonds and ballin (not veterans, but very established club players who are on the rise) I can see a very good group to pull us very far for several years. In the wings we have young guns like gutherson (who plays with such an entertaining flair) taufua and cheyse blair just itching to show the NRL what they can do, and I can see gutherson becoming the next brett stewart in a few years - we're not at a loss for talent and while we may miss the experience of our current stars, a couple of years of notorious manly player development with leadership from players like Lyon, Foran and Ballin as they become Manly legends in their own right leads me very optimistic as to our future. I understand that such a move may leave us down on the ladder a little for a year or three, but in my opinion it's worth it and might be the breath of fresh air manly needs to blow away the aching stigma of being a group of players stung by internal divides and uncertainty developed this year and push us into a tight-knit team. Of course, it has every chance of ending in catastrophe but I feel pretty confident in believing that we won't turn into sticky's canberra, with all its unrealized potential.
Paul Bennett
Guest
I think the Sea Eagles should let the UNHAPPY PLAYERS GO.
Paul Bennett
Guest
I think the Sea Eagles need to let the UNHAPPY PLAYERS GO or other wise I think they will NOT PUT IN a 100%, then the Sea Eagles will NOT MAKE the FINALS for 2015.
Paul Bennett
Guest
I think the Sea Eagles need to let the UNHAPPY PLAYERS GO or other wise I think they will NOT PUT IN a 100%, then the Sea Eagles will NOT MAKE the FINALS for 2015.
Manly First
Guest
The Manly Club can go one of two ways ,first enforce the contracts and make the 3 play out their contracts. or release all 3 to go to other clubs but this causes the big problem that in future other players will want out of their for any reason thus making contracts a thing of the past..The NRL should step in and force players who try to break their contracts by taking away their lience to play in the NRL forever the same should go for players who have been kicked out of clubs for misbehaving or bring the game into disrepute none of this should be tolerated by the NRL. the other big question is if Manly does release Watmough doe he still get the $950,000 for next season or does he forefit the money for the release, inthis case Manly would be mad not to grant him the release but Matai and Bret Stewart are different cases as they begged the club to grant the extensions in the first place.Bret said he does not want to play against his brother yet now he wants to play for another club but not Souths, so he will still have to play against his brother.If I owned the club I would let Watmough go and save some money and I would keep the other 2 and if they play poorly I put them in the NSW cup for the whole of their contracts then release them.This would be a warning to all players that no one is bigger than the club.
The Barry
Roar Guru
It's not investigation time at brooky. They have a good mix of youth and experience in the backs. With Kite, King, G Stewart gone if Watmough leaves there will not be as much experience in the forwards. It will be a challenge for Burhrer and Ballin to step up as experienced players and leaders. Starling had a good year and will improve. The dogs semi could be the making of JSL as hopefully he has realises what he can do when he runs and hits hard. I initially thought Mason would be a good buy for manly but on reflection I'm not sure he's a good fit for the manly culture and toovey. The question will be do they replace the lost experience or go they wait for their existing players to get experience The changeover is here for manly at last...it will be interesting to see how they deal with it.
apaway
Roar Guru
I don't think there is much of an investigation needed. Manly's season ended disappointingly but with the injuries to Ballin and Buhrer coming at a bad time, coupled with injuries to Brett Stewart (v Cowboys) and then the suspension of Watmough for the Bulldogs game, the bits and pieces Manly pack almost pulled off a miracle in the elimination final. Inevitably, the older guard will need to be replaced. The Glenn Stewart saga was unfortunate but had he been fully fit throughout the season, it might have made a difference. In the salary cap era, re-generation is often a cruel but necessary process. I know guys like Matai and Watmough were angry that the Eagles didn't try to keep G Stewart but they simply didn't have the finances to do so. As great as Stewart is, he is reaching the end of a fantastic career, and money needed to be found to invest in the next generation of players like Foran, Cherry-Evans, Hiku, Tafuoa etc. I think the loss of Brett Kite was a big one for Manly in 2014 and is often overlooked.
mick
Guest
We have some good youngsters coming through, if some size is added to the front it will be another year of finals.