Hypothetical: Immediately recall former Sea Eagles players & who should they replace?

[40 nil]

I noticed that Dylan Walker has been selected as five eighth for the Warriors this round. IMO, he is a better player than the Sea Eagles five eighth this round. In recent years, we have released many quality NRL players to other clubs. In fact, there is a full team of former Sea Eagles* selected for Rd 7 by other clubs (Api for the Tigers has a bye). Of these, which players would like to see make immediate returns to our 17 and which current players should they replace?

*those who've played NRL for the Sea Eagles, rather than those who've been in our system such as Hynes & Ramien

Note: I was going to limit the number of former players to six, but then decided it would be interesting to see if forum members would like to replace even more current players. Gutho, Api, AFB & JWH will probably be universal selections.

 

[Rosko]

I would have said 1.Hynes 2.Ramien, but you ruled that out.

 

[Rafferty]

I’d take the front row and the FB back in a heart beat, out goes Aloiai, Froggy-sadly and Woods, Harper moves out and Gutho plays centre.
Probably throw Walker back in for Cooper.
Same with Lane for Kelma.
Wouldn’t add up under the cap, but answers your question.

 

[40 nil]

I’d take the front row and the FB back in a heart beat, out goes Aloiai, Froggy-sadly and Woods, Harper moves out and Gutho plays centre.
Probably throw Walker back in for Cooper.
Same with Lane for Kelma.
Wouldn’t add up under the cap, but answers your question.

I agree. I think adding Gutho & the front row would transform us into an immediate genuine premiership contender.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

I find these type of threads amusing really ( and yes I know it’s only hypothetical).

Players leave for a variety of reasons , some go on to much bigger and better things , some continue to be plodders elsewhere.

A player like Nicho Hynes had plenty of potential but at the time where did he fit ??

So he goes to arguably the best place to go to hone your skills , then gets poached by a club to become their superstar.

Would Nicho have become a superstar had he stayed with us ??

But hypothetically of course if you had all those players instead of the ones we have we might be a better team.

But we also mightn’t be either.

 

[40 nil]

Players leave for a variety of reasons , some go on to much bigger and better things , some continue to be plodders elsewhere.

Yes, this is true. Of the NRL players that left, there is only a few whose games have dramatically improved since - I would suggest Gutho, JWH, Api & Lane. Their careers may not have developed as well if they had stayed with Manly. In Hynes' case, it was a very circuitous route for him to become the elite player he is today. There is no way to construe that this would have happened if he'd been retained by Manly.

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

I find these type of threads amusing really ( and yes I know it’s only hypothetical).

Players leave for a variety of reasons , some go on to much bigger and better things , some continue to be plodders elsewhere.

A player like Nicho Hynes had plenty of potential but at the time where did he fit ??

So he goes to arguably the best place to go to hone your skills , then gets poached by a club to become their superstar.

Would Nicho have become a superstar had he stayed with us ??

But hypothetically of course if you had all those players instead of the ones we have we might be a better team.

But we also mightn’t be either.

Nico would never come back if we threw all the money at him and made him our no.1 guy.
Throwing him to the wayside while he was injured when he was a top performer for years in the juniors is pretty bad.
I would say he would still have turned out as a superstar because I watched a lot of games where he combined well with Turbo in Toyota Cup. He was the 2nd best player in that Manly team by far, and I remember Turbo scoring 5 tries a game every so often due to Nico.
He set up Turbo for a ton of tries.
Not to mention we let a rampaging Jesse Ramien go as well.

 

[Spartan Eagle]

I think you should add Cliffy to the hypothetical list..he would offer more at 5/8 with his current fitness, a vb in one hand hand and a durry hanging from his mouth.

 

[Killer03]

JWH for me. I think we lack that player in our team. I always like 1 enforcer in the team (can't have too many as they do tread a very fine line). But I think as a senior player now he could mentor the kids a bit like BK did.

 

[Eagle thru 'n' thru]

Gutho, Hynes, Api, AFB, Lane

Gutho
Garrick
Turbo
Koula
Saab
Schuster
Hynes
AFB
Api
Jurbo
Olaka
Lane
Lawton

GCKT
Tuilago
Paseka
Bullemor

 

[Top End Eagle]

Nico would never come back if we threw all the money at him and made him our no.1 guy.
Throwing him to the wayside while he was injured when he was a top performer for years in the juniors is pretty bad.
I would say he would still have turned out as a superstar because I watched a lot of games where he combined well with Turbo in Toyota Cup. He was the 2nd best player in that Manly team by far, and I remember Turbo scoring 5 tries a game every so often due to Nico.
He set up Turbo for a ton of tries.
Not to mention we let a rampaging Jesse Ramien go as well.

Hence the term Hypothetical

 

[Pete W]

1. JWH for that BK effect
2. Api for Croker (until Gordie is ripe)
3. Gutho for much needed outside back quality

 

[47MVEagle]

My choices are based on what they would have added had they stayed:

Gutho - would have been excellent injury cover for Turbo & solved our 5/8th issue over the years, would be a starting centre otherwise.

Hiku - injury cover for Turbo, starting centre otherwise.

Foran - injury cover for Schuster, would have solved our 5/8th issue all these years.

AFB - for Aloiai

Api - starting hooker, Croker #14

JWH - starting prop

Lane - for Tuilagi

 

[47MVEagle]

Imagine:

Turbo
Garrick
Gutho
Hiku
Saab
Foran
DCE
AFB
Api
JWH
Olakau’atu
Lane
Jake

Croker
Paseka
Keppie
Burbo