Manly beat Souths 22-16 Trial

[1969]

Manly Warringah Sea Eagles secured a 22-16 win over South Sydney in an NRL trial at Campbelltown Sports Stadium tonight.

In a match played in very humid conditions, the Sea Eagles led from start to finish in their first 80 minute hit out for the season. The game was played over 4 x 20 minute quarters in front of a small crowd who braved the heat.

The new halves pairing of captain Daly Cherry-Evans and Blake Green were very strong as was centre Dylan Walker.

The Sea Eagles opened the scoring through a try to forward Jarrad Kennedy.

It came from a great cut out pass by Daly Cherry-Evans to winger Brian Kelly who magically flicked the ball inside for Dylan Walker to run across field to give a short ball to Kennedy to score. Walker converted for 6-0 lead

Kelly did well a few minutes in defence to hold up Souths winger Tautalatasi Tasi from scoring after a cut out pass by Robbie Farah. The Sea Eagles led 6-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The Sea Eagles stretched their lead to 10-0 when centre Jono Wright crossed over in the left corner. Walker converted from the sideline for a 12-0 lead after 28 minutes. The score remained that way at half-time.

South Sydney opened their account through a try to winger Sitiveni Moceidreke in the right corner for a 16-4 scoreline.

The Rabbitohs were in again minutes later when centre Siosifa Talakai scored near the posts. Five-eighth Eli Levido converted to leave South Sydney trailing 16-10.

The Sea Eagles stretched their lead to 20-10 when Cherry-Evans stepped the defence before putting in a smart grubber kick behind the line for winger Peter Schuster to score. Walker converted from the sideline for a 22-10 lead at the end of 60 minutes.

Sea Eagles Coach Trent Barrett rested the majority of his top line up in the final quarter with the likes of Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles players Tom Amone, Matt Place, Jake Samoa, Dean Parata, Pat Mataele and Jerry Key getting a run.

South Sydney scored a try in the 78th minute through Ed Murphy, converted by Adam Doueihi for the 22-16 scoreline.

Sea Eagles team

1 Tom Trbojevic 2 Jorge Taufua 3 Dylan Walker 4 Jonathan Wright 5 Brian Kelly 6 Blake Green 7 Daly Cherry-Evans (C) 8 Lloyd Perrett 9 Lewis Brown 10 Addin Fonua-Blake 11 Frank Winterstein 12 Curtis Sironen 13 Jarrad Kennedy Interchange: 15 Brenton Lawrence 16 Shaun Lane 19 Pita Godinet 20 Peter Schuster 23 Tom Amone 24 Joey Lussick 25 Nate Myles, 14 Cade Cust, 17 Matt Place, 18 Pat Mataele, 19 Jerry Key 20 Dean Parata, 21 Jake Samoa

From Sea Eagles site

 

[Supreme Leader]

Hey, the team is actually not as bad as we thought. If they win the matches they should, definitely a top 10 season ahead.
I know its only a trial, but I expected a bit of a reality check beating last night.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Hey, the team is actually not as bad as we thought. If they win the matches they should, definitely a top 10 season ahead.
I know its only a trial, but I expected a bit of a reality check beating last night.

Not many of the usual FG players in the Bunnies side last night, but a win is a win and it ll help their confidence.

 

[court83]

i was hoping for a few more points to be honest.... last year we looked like we barely knew how to set up a try, i thought with a near full strength team vs a rabbits side full of reggies, wede have piled on a heap.... having said that, its one trial, so wont read a whole lot into it just yet..

 

[1969]

Dylan Walker is the heir apparent to the right centre position vacated by retired Sea Eagles legend Jamie Lyon and in his first hit-out there of 2017 Walker showed he is up to the task.

Walker looked the most dangerous player on the field in his team's 22-16 trial win over Souths at a sweltering Campbelltown Sports Stadium on Saturday night, showing good pace and awareness to jink across field and set up Jarrad Kennedy for the opening try of the night and a piece of blistering acceleration early in the second half helped him dart through some broken play to score one of his own.

He had a few other dangerous carries and also slotted three goals from four attempts – nailing two from the sideline – in an indication he may also take over from Lyon as the team's first-choice goal kicker.

Speaking after the win, both Walker and his coach Trent Barrett confirmed that centre is his best spot.

"I've been working at centre the whole pre-season, it was just good to get the first hit-out," Walker said.

"It felt a bit more comfortable because when I first come to grade, that's where I started. It was good feeling. I think the boys did a real good job tonight, especially 'Chez' (halfback Daly Cherry-Evans) and 'Greeny' (five-eighth Blake Green), they really controlled the ruck."

Barrett confirmed Walker would be the right centre this season.

"He has trained hard. He is a lot heavier than what he was last year but he has that X-Factor," Barrett said.

"That try he scored, there aren’t too many that can score them. He has worked really hard."

Asked if he was leaning towards Walker as goal-kicker, Barrett joked Walker "thinks he can do anything".

"He is one of our kickers. We have a couple. They still have to work very hard over the next three weeks," Barrett said.

Walker said the goalkicking contenders are all trying to push each other at the moment.

"We obviously want the best goalkicker out there working on it, there's a couple of boys like Api [Koroisau] and Chez doing it also," he said.

Walker confirmed he had put on five or six kilos in the off season but said it hadn't affected his pace.

"I've just gone back to normal weight what I used to play at a couple of years ago," he said.

The other key take-out from the night for Manly fans was the first look at Cherry-Evans and Green as a halves combination.

Green marshalled the left side of the field while Cherry-Evans worked the right. They split the general play kicking fairly evenly, with Green raining down some accurate cross-field bombs and Cherry-Evans' slicing grubbers behind the line causing havoc – including one forced drop-out and one try created.

Cherry-Evans was called on to be not only the dominant half but virtually the lone playmaker at times in 2016 as in injury-hit Manly side struggled for rhythm. The very early signs indicate Green may look to play a similar role on Manly's left edge to what Kieran Foran did when he partnered Cherry-Evans so successfully there.

"We balanced the field up well; they worked well together," Barrett said of his halves.

"It will free Cherry up. Green is like having another coach out there. He is very smart, follows instructions well and frees 'Turbo' (fullback Tom Trbojevic) and Cherry up."

This article first appeared on NRL.com

 

[SoaringEagle]

That was embarrassing, we only won by 6 and they had their reserve grade on. Need to improve a lot before round 1.

 

[Ryan]

Interesting comment about either Koroisou or Walker being the kickers. That intimates that barrett plans on playing Koroisou at Hooker. That's not a good sign for any of Hastings, Brown or Cullen (one of which will get the utility spot).

 

[Mitch]

That was embarrassing, we only won by 6 and they had their reserve grade on. Need to improve a lot before round 1.

There were minimal recognized first grade players for Manly within the last quarter, and by all accounts most of the established players took the chance to blow the cobwebs off, without pushing themselves too hard.

 

[Brissie Kid]

DCE was a very good goal kicker when he first came in to the team. Would be good if he could get back to that level.

 

[Killer03]

Sounds like a good confidence booster last night. And if ever there was a confidence player its Dylan Walker. If he can get his head right he will be the games best centre for the next 5 years.

 

[brad]

It was a trial , but a good solid hit out for our boys. No injuries and some much needed time gelling for our halves . Apparently very good games from dylan and jorge as well as a few of the young guns , awesome effort considering normally our trial form is below par . Personally i think quite a few sides will be wary of the BROOKVALE (Lottoland ) SEAEAGLES. Bring it .....

 

[Snake]

If there is one thing I can't stand, it's a revolving door of goal kickers...it's so under 8's.

Choose a kicker who plays 80 minutes and give him the job for the season and let him get used to the role and pressure etc.

If Barrett starts playing musical chairs it'll come back to bite him.

 

[nightster]

Walker will be the first choice goal kicker .... imho

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Let's not forget it was a trial , whilst the spine may have played 60 of the 80 minutes you can bet the other players were playing revolving doors all night.

A good hit out, and that's all you can expect from a trial match, win or lose.

That was for @Soaring eagle

 

[The Wheel]

Let's not forget it was a trial , whilst the spine may have played 60 of the 80 minutes you can bet the other players were playing revolving doors all night.

A good hit out, and that's all you can expect from a trial match, win or lose.

That was for @Soaring eagle

On that performance:

Barrett should be sacked
Clearly is an imposter
Cartwright is a joke
Fulton is a dinosaur
Zorba is destroying the club
Penn is moving the club to Perth
DCE is the $10m chump
We will fight out the wooden spoon with knights

 

[Fluffy]

we had plenty of reserve grade players as well

Jonathan Wright, Brian Kelly, Lloyd Perrett, Frank Winterstein, Jarrad Kennedy, Pita Godinet, Tom Amone, Joey Lussick, Cade Cust, Matt Place, Pat Mataele, Jerry Key, Dean Parata, Jake Samoa

 

[Shoe1]

Sounds like walker was on fire! Maybe Bartlett should try him at 6 to get him closer to the action?

 

[bringbackbeaver]

Interesting comment about either Koroisou or Walker being the kickers. That intimates that barrett plans on playing Koroisou at Hooker. That's not a good sign for any of Hastings, Brown or Cullen (one of which will get the utility spot).

I think Api will have the first few rounds there and if he doesnt perform there will be pressure on Baz to get Cullen/Hastings involved. Surely one of them has to be on the bench?

 

[smithy]

Let's not forget it was a trial , whilst the spine may have played 60 of the 80 minutes you can bet the other players were playing revolving doors all night.

A good hit out, and that's all you can expect from a trial match, win or lose.

That was for @Soaring eagle

Barrett actually made minimal changes at all in the first half, from memory the only ones were perrett and Addin being replaced by Myles and Lawrence. Lewis Brown also came off just before half time with abit of a knock and Lussick went on. It was impressive given the extreme heat. The Bunnies were continually bringing on fresh legs throughout.

The third quarter saw a few more changes with Sironen and Kennedy having a breather while the last quarter saw the young guys like Bainbridge and Tom Wright join Taufua, J Wright, Lewis Brown, Sironen, Lane, Schuster and the boys from Blacktown to finish off the game.

 

[pjayz]

i was hoping for a few more points to be honest.... last year we looked like we barely knew how to set up a try, i thought with a near full strength team vs a rabbits side full of reggies, wede have piled on a heap.... having said that, its one trial, so wont read a whole lot into it just yet..

It was played in 40 degree heat which is a great leveler. I also think "near full strength" is stretching the truth. If in any game in the regular season we had 7 or 8 of our top 17 players out, we would cry injury crisis (and rightly so), yet because it is a trial we are near full strength? Yes we had more recognisable players than the vermin; however, it was the first trial, we had plenty of new players and it was played in extreme conditions.

If a crap team came up against a really good team who might normally win 40 - 0 (love that scoreline), yet were forced to play in 40 degree heat - they may only win 16 - 0 due to the oppressive conditions. Yes, both teams are playing in the same heat, but it isn't all relative on the scoreboard. If a team wasn't going to score many points or would have made a heap of mistakes anyway - the heat won't change that - those mistakes or lack of points will occur either way. However, for a team that would normally not make many mistakes or would normally score a lot of points - the heat most certainly will change that.

I also believe that during our golden run of 10 years in the finals we regularly got hammered in trials. We won, let's see it for what it was - the first hit-out of the pre-season which happened to be a victory and without a bucket load of injuries.