Two senior Sea Eagles board members says they hope star forward Anthony Watmough ends up playing out his whole career at Manly.
It was revealed that Narrabeen Sharks product has been given permissi
on by Manly to test the market for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
"He is a life member of the club and it would be a tragedy if he didn't play out his career with Manly," sad Sea Eagles chairman Scott Penn.
"It would be a real surprise if we weren't able to retain him, we want to retain him."
Penn said it added something extra that "Choc" was born and bred on the northern beaches.
"He has shown tremendous loyalty to the club and the club has shown loyalty to him so it has been reciprocated," Penn said.
"It would be incredibly disappointing to see him playing in anything other than maroon and white."
Fellow board member Phil Sydney said "Choc" has been with Manly his whole life and it would be nice if he was to stay.
"He is one of the senior players, he has contributed so much to the team and so Sydney was commenting after it was revealed that Narrabeen Sharks product has been permission by Manly to test the market for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
"He has been an Origin player, played for Australia and will always be a club legend in that sense," Sydney said.
Watmough has added so much to the winning culture at Manly no one would really like to see him leave."
Watmough's current contract expires at the end of next year and he set to earn $950,000 in 2015.
That's because he is on a back ended deal after deferring the payment of money owed to him in previous seasons to help the club due to salary cap pressures.
Sydney said until Watmough and has manager get back to the club nobody knows what will happen.
"I think everything has been put on hold, no one wants to be in any sorts of negotiations during the finals series," he said..
There have been reports that Watmough has been unhappy with the circumstances surrounding Glenn Stewart's imminent departure from the club at the end of this year.
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Jon Geddes
Manly Daily
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-beaches/sea-eagles-want-to-keep-anthony-watmough-for-life-but-grant-him-permission-to-look-elsewhere/story-fngr8iii-1227037494676