tookey
First Grader
- A player banished to the NSW Cup, the skipper's leadership brought into disrepute and six players fined in an ugly incident at a strip club that has put Manly's culture in the limelight.
- But Mason warns there are more boiling issues within the playing group that could spell disaster for Barrett's tenure.
“In this circumstance, six people have gone out and Trent Barrett’s given them a curfew. That’s just the biggest f*** you to a coach I’ve ever seen,” Mason told SkipiTV.
“I’ve seen it done at some clubs that I was at before when we were younger and no one could really tell us what to do.
“It’s that pack mentality when you’re out and you’re having a couple of beers and you’re getting beat and everyone’s getting pissed off.
“You’re pissed off at the coach, you’re pissed off at the trainers, you’re pissed off at the players, everything just seems to be all boiled up.
“That’s when you start breaking curfews and pretty much tell everyone to beat it and you run your own race.
“That’s the worst thing that can happen to Trent Barrett, is his team imploding and having no respect for him or the club.
“He’s got a hell of a task at the moment controlling these players, getting the key people like
‘DCE’ (Cherry-Evans) and the Trbojevic brothers and getting them all under one umbrella.”
Facing their fourth straight loss on 13th on the NRL ladder, Mason believes the only cure for the Sea Eagles is winning.
“I’ve been in some teams where everything just seems to be going wrong, wrong, wrong and the only way to get past it all is to win,” he said.
“They’re going to have crisis meetings after crisis meetings this week and just get out there on the weekend and get a win, because that solves everything.”
