For the first ten minutes on Saturday, the Manly Sea Eagles looked like the Manly of old.
They were smashing Souths in every department; however, unlike the Manly of old, who would have gone on with the job, the current squad crumbled when Souths changed the momentum of the game. These changes stem from a multitude of factors at the club.
Firstly, the recruitment in the offseason was below par. Curtis Sironen, Akuila Uate, Jackson Hastings and Blake Green are not the big-star player hirings that will get Manly out of trouble. Uate has struggled with form the past few years and was barely playing first grade for the Knights. Sironen felt out of favour at the Tigers and really only received an offer from Manly due to his last name. Hastings, like Sironen, felt out of favour at the Roosters and likewise found his way to Manly thanks to his surname.
Triple M commentator Dan Giannane tweeted: “An absolutely absurd stat: Blake Green’s record with his halves partners. 34-13 with Cooper Cronk. 1-23 with all the others”. This is more a testament to the Storm system and how Craig Bellamy turns average players into good players.
All that being said, the recruitment in Manly has been subpar in recent years. Further, the recruitment of the coach Trent Barrett was questioned by the media at the time and is still questioned to this day. Missing the finals in his first year as coach at a club who had not missed the finals in over a decade is not a good start. Not all players make good coaches – an example of this is Brad Fittler, and Trent Barrett may join this club if he can’t turn around Manly sooner rather than later.
If the Dragons are copping flack for signing Ben Hunt to a million-dollar deal, it’s time to turn to Manly and ask why Daly Cherry-Evans was signed to an eight-year deal. Daly needs to start living up to his big pay packet deal.
When Manly was going through that great period of dominance as perennial premiership contenders they had great players, but since those players have left, Daly Cherry-Evans has not replaced them with the brilliance Manly fans have been looking for.
As Darren Lockyer said, “It seems counterintuitive, but as a player the best thing you can do when you are trying to get your peak form back is to stop looking for the money play.
“Whenever your confidence is down, revert to the basics. Work hard at training. Practise core skills. Play the percentages in games.”
If Cherry-Evans can do that, he might live up to his price tag – but there’s little sign of a turnaround at the moment.
It has been reported that there’s a power struggle between CEO Tim Cleary and Bob Fulton. It’s been heard that Clearly wants to diminish Fulton’s power in the club. These off-field distractions are the last thing Manly need after a 0-2 start for the season.
Finally, the first two months of the season are crucial for Manly – with games against the Cowboys, Dogs, Roosters, Dragons, Storm and Raiders in the next six weeks it is a possibility that Manly can go down 0-8.
And if Manyly start the season 0-8, heads will roll.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Gee steven...you've been up and down on the Rabbitohs this year. Weren't you ready to sack the lot of them this time last week...?
SSTID_1970
Roar Rookie
As Joe Kelly is the former Chief Financial Officer for the Rabbitohs there is really no excuse for someone in the "inner sanctum" at Souths to slip up on that one (whether he spent the night out on the turps or not).
steveng
Roar Rookie
With all said by all you blokes, Souths are on their way up, sure GI's injury was a blow, but they have regrouped and I can only see their combinations and heart go up from here. Anyone that is misinterpreting Souths will be at their own peril. The next game against the Knights, Souths should not take them lightly. But my prediction is that Souths have more guns across the park that will blaze to demolish the Knights. My prediction 18+ win to Souths. But then on, we have the; Roosters, Cowboys and Panthers, could be very testing and these games will separate the men from the boys at Souths. Go The Bunnies!!!
3_Hats SSTID 2014
Roar Rookie
Ah, yes Kelly, not Perry... Thanks, guys, I was still hungover celebrating our carve up, lol
Parrafan
Guest
Gutherson was granted an early release. He may have wanted more cash for 2017, but that is not a ground to a release a player in 2016 when you had two constantly injured centres in Matai and Lyon. Fulton gambled on bringing outside players to the club, whilst cutting local juniors and long time serving players. Their recent results tell how well that has worked.
bearfax
Guest
I'm not enamoured by Manly's recruitment strategies entirely either. Letting Gutherson, Buhrer, Hiku, Whare etc go was a mistake I felt. But the the problems at Manly came about because of the literal cost of their success, along with some early mismanagement that set the scene for a financial struggle to keep Manly from the Spoon. What is not appreciated is that Manly had a bunch of back ended contracts with their star players. Recently the career ending injuries to Matai and Brett Stewart, left Manly hanging with contracts not completed, and the double standards of the NRL admin (when considering the Watmough case) has left Manly well short of their salary cap allotment, with monies being paid for players now retired. Add to that the debacle over Foran and DCE, where Manly were prepared to let DCE go, and then offer Foran the World, only to see him then decide to leave, left Manly without a half and five eighth. It was only Fulton's last minute over the top offer to DCE to come back, that saved the day to an extent. Just poor business decisions there, not DCE or the size of the contracts fault, given DCE had agreed to stay at Manly for far less but was rejected. Better to have an overpaid quality half than a reserve grader at both half and five eighth The consequent recruitment, though flawed to a degree, was a consequence of a much smaller kitty (salary cap) in the short term, than most other teams, and especially teams that abused the cap restrictions yet kept the players they bought with the extra pennies long enough to then shed unwanted players. Add to that some clubs have an unfair advantage with TPAs. Manly have therefore been left with trying to get some bright young players cheap, along with a bunch of journeymen, many past their prime and some not first grade standard. They did this between 2005-7, with youngsters who became stars but were just talented kids at the time. It shouldnt be forgotten that Haslers first coaching year ended with worse results than 2016 and his second year just had them sneak into the 8. The question of some of the recruits not being up to first grade standard, may be valid...for now...just as it was in 2005 when Manly had the Stewarts, Watmough, King, Matai etc just starting out. Sironen, Hastings, Cullen, Amone, Parker, Tom Wright, Bainbridge, Kelly, Walker, Schuster etc are just kids. They may falter, but they have yet to reach the pinnacle of their careers. Judging them too soon is a mistake as was the criticism made in 2005. By 2018, Manly will again be financially on salary cap par with other teams. Then you'll see them buy a few top liners.
Ralph stretton
Guest
Manlys attack looked good in the first ten minutes but when it came to us defending it looked terrible. The centre would move up quickly to the advantage line and the edges stood back. It does take a rocket scientist to work out if you take the ball wide or change the point of attack you would find holes or plenty of one on one situations. Defence is normally straight line slide , compressed staight line slide, compressed umbrella or variations of these depending on what part of the field you are in. Manlys goal line defence was quite good because they all moved up quickly TOGETHER. Football teams need to drill their defensive patterns every session in all parts of the field otherwise they suffer from short term memory loss
The spectator
Guest
Your thinking of Joe Kelly, lol
The spectator
Guest
Fulton didnt appoint Perry.
The spectator
Guest
Turbo,
Keith Sheldon
Roar Guru
As the guy that wrote it, your guess is as good as mine.
Andrew
Guest
And the expert was right, souths wont make the eighth, lets see what Andrew has to say after Newcastle beat them this weekend, unless of course the Newcastle players are still drunk.
Andrew
Guest
I don't suppose it has anything with losing 5-6 of there star players and some other decent players from the past decade over those years. No, that wouldn't make a difference, what am I thinking?
Andrew
Guest
Gutherson wanted a fair bit of money and wanted to play fullback or 5/8, they already had signed green and I doubt they wanted to risk a untried 5/8 like they did last year. No one is playing fullback in front of tom
Andrew
Guest
They have some good juniors/reserves in Schuster and parker, they will start before wright, Schuster is very quick and has big wraps on him. There 20's have been going well and apparently there is some good young backs in the side. Toufou made one bad mistake on the weekend but gee he done some work taking the ball up, cant see them dropping him, uate has been more then safe so far.
Andrew
Guest
He hasn't been unreliable so far, hasn't dropped a kick in two games, has only dropped the ball once, which a lot of good players couldn't say. You can only judge a guy on his performance not his reputation. They would be much better off chasing cleary instead of hasler.
3_Hats SSTID 2014
Roar Rookie
100% mate, Souths will be there when the whips are cracking providing we don't lose Adam Reynolds, Cody Walker, Sam Burgess, Farah, Cook and Johnston.
3_Hats SSTID 2014
Roar Rookie
Yes he was at Hills District Bulls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hills_District_Bulls
3_Hats SSTID 2014
Roar Rookie
At Souths Perry was a financial controller, NOT a CEO. There is a huge difference. Bob Fulton pulls all the strings at Manly, I suggest that you deliver your anger there!
SSTID_1970
Roar Rookie
Bozo is actually Pennywise the clown from the Stephen King movie "IT". He hides in the sewers just out of sight and snatches anyone who comes too close! Barrett is now just a husk that does the bidding of his master. Old Pennywise can even make online articles "disappear". Stay away from manhole covers and sewer grates!