ManlyBacker
Winging it
<p>BRETT STEWART is the most influential player in the NRL and means more to Manly than did Andrew Johns to Newcastle.</p><p>Every team has a "money man", a player who has such an impact on the game that his team's hopes of winning hinge largely on whether he's on the field or off it.</p><p>And according to a study commissioned by <em>The Sun-Herald</em>, Stewart has a greater bearing on Manly's hopes of victory than even halfback-of-the-century Johns had during his time at Newcastle. The Sea Eagles fullback is one of the most influential men in 100 years of rugby league.</p><p>When Stuart plays, the Sea Eagles win 61.6 per cent of the time. When he's out injured, that figure is just 25.9, a disparity of 35.7 percentage points. To put that into perspective, the Knights, ridiculed as a one-man team when Johns was at the helm, won 63.6 per cent of their games with the Test playmaker and only 37.1 when he was unavailable, a difference of 26.5 percentage points (based on Sportsdata figures compiled since the inception of the NRL).</p>
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