Manly winger Akuila Uate has turned back the clock to 2011 when life was good, tries flowed freely and he pulled on a Kangaroos jersey for the first time.
Twelve months after being dropped to reserve grade and told he was unwanted at Newcastle, Uate signalled he was ready for his second coming in the Sea Eagles’ 46-8 rout of South Sydney on Friday night.
He crossed for the second four-try haul of his NRL career in the nine-tries-to-one belting.
Ironically, the last time he walked away with a bag of four four-pointers was against Souths back in round 26, 2011.
Just over a month later, he was selected to make his Australian Test debut.
It’s been a long time since he’s been considered one of the game’s premiers wingers.
But Sea Eagles coach Trent Barrett is optimistic the 29-year-old can rediscover some of the consistency and brilliance which saw him labelled one of the game’s most exciting players six years ago.
Asked why he headhunted Uate after he’d fallen out of favour at the Knights and dropped to reserve grade despite being on a $500,000-a-year deal, Barrett said: “Because I knew he could play like he’s playing.
“You don’t play for Australia and NSW and just lose all your ability. All you lose is motivation and confidence and he’s got that back.
“I’ve had a fair bit to do with him coaching him in (NSW) Country sides and Origin sides as an assistant. And I knew what he could bring to the group. He just needed an arm around him. He’s enjoying his footy, his family is happy.
“It was a bit of a shame to watch him at Newcastle. But he’s back.”
Uate deflected the praise onto his right-side partner Dylan Walker who threw the last pass for each of Uate’s tries against Souths.
Barrett has managed to get the best out of the Fijia-born winger for the first time in a long time and he said it all comes back to making him feeling wanted and at ease.
And the man himself said he was feeling the love on Sydney’s northern beaches.
“I was in Newcastle for too long and I knew my confidence was just going to rise from where it was the last two years,” Uate said.
“I had Baz a couple of times in the Country team and in NSW he was there as well. Coming to Manly was just a massive boost.”
Joe
Roar Rookie
I thought the Manly halves did well in the first half to set up the win. Couple of repeat sets especially from Green and nice runs from DCE really put the Rabbitohs on the back foot and they never recovered. Manly this season has the best completion rates and now the team is getting confident and gelling well.
Albo
Guest
Yep ! Very interesting set up at Manly where, even more so than Canberra( with Rapana & Leilua), they are one of the few teams in the NRL where there key focal points of creativity are not associated with their halves. Manly's "big 3" are fast being established as the Turbo brothers and Dylan Walker. The halves just funnel the ball to one of these three and kick the ball on the 5th. All creativity comes from these "big 3". In a NSW team traditionally lacking any creativity, all three should be selected next month for SOO. The Turbo brothers are natural footballers never phased and generally error free and great team leaders, whilst Walker can over play his hand at times but generally effective when he gets it right, like last night.
The eye
Guest
In his last year at the Knights BJ was similarly ripping sides apart ,but that performance by Walker last night was the nearest to perfection youre going to see from a centre. Sure Aku got 4 but every single one came off a Dylan Walker final pass with 2,3 or 4 defenders all over him and an untouched outside man with nothing to do but catch and fall over.. Souths have been fielding low quality backs,both Jennings and Talakai are infamously line break magnets,the fullback is a speedhump and offers nothing in any aspect of fullback play and Adam Reynolds played Mitchell Pearce into the Blues.
Joe
Roar Rookie
Great to see Aku back to good form. I have to say though Walker played a blinder against his old team. He was outstanding last night. Manly were just unstoppable last night.
Joe
Roar Rookie
Have to agree HY. The string of penalties to start the 2nd half was very suspect. Really starting to doubt some of these refs.
eagleJack
Roar Guru
HY, one particular series of events had me convinced that the refereees make decisions based on the scoreline. I'm not sure if they are instructed to, or if it's subconscious, but it was blatantly obvious last night. Manly were on the attack 10m out, early in the 2nd half, when Api Koroisau picked up the ball from dummy half and charged towards the try line. He was stopped by 2 defenders, clearly not square, and offside. Api looked up expecting a penalty. Badger looked at it, looked at the other ref, and called Api to play the ball. At 30-2 the last thing the game needed was a repeat set for Manly with the Souths defence reeling. Moments later Souths got a piggyback penalty up the field. Before receiving another one when they dropped the ball. What was it for? Manly being offside. Apparently the offside law was back in play. Hymel Hunt scored, the NRL executives smiled, as for a fleeting moment we had a game on our hands again. It does make you wonder.
eagleJack
Roar Guru
Hats off to Trent. He is proving to be a quality coach with his ability to get the best out of each individual player. His surprise visits to the pub, telling the bus to pull up there on the way home from a game, along with other techniques look to be working a treat. I haven't seen a Manly side this genuinely close in years. And it's translating onto the field
kk
Roar Pro
Hard Yards , I am not surprised that Manly are delivering the goods. The good part is it will only get better.
Hard Yards
Roar Rookie
Go Manly ! Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that the Sea Eagles would be playing the way they have been this year. I'll tell you what though, but for the referees Manly might have put on 60 last night. They didn't get a penalty until the second half. The NRL should get out of the business of trying to manage scorelines in all games involving all teams.