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Manly captain Matt Orford has vowed to carry the Sea Eagles on his broad shoulders until new recruit Jamie Lyon finds his feet at the club.
Orford said he could empathise with the pressure Lyon was facing in his return to the NRL against Canberra on Saturday, having arrived at the Sea Eagles last year under a similar weight of expectation.
While Orford and his Manly teammates have backed Lyon to be a revelation at five-eighth, the halfback has vowed to step up his game so his halves partner can ease his way back into the NRL after three seasons out.
"Jamie's a player that can cope with the pressure," said Orford.
"I just want him to go out there and relax and not try too hard.
"I'll go out there and play my normal game and if he wants to take a back seat then I'm just going to step it up.
"He's a smart player and he'll pick his times when to play and when to run. He doesn't want to read too much into the hype. He is a pretty laid back character and he'll just ease his way into it."
Orford said it can be tough coming into a new club with high expectations being built up in the media, the former Melbourne half telling Lyon just to focus on building things up slowly.
"The expectation Jamie's got through the media and attention he grabs, they're expecting big things," Orford said.
"I was in pretty much the same position last year coming to a new club and it does take time and I think he understands that.
"We both know we had good trials together and there were good signs but we still need to work on things.
"The sooner we get out there and work together and read each other's game, it's going to be better for us and the club."
Lyon and Orford's form in pre-season trials has Manly officials quietly confident of a big season ahead, Orford admitting the pair had benefited from playing the games in Queensland.
"It's good we were out of the spotlight and there was not too much coverage of how we went," he said.
"All we wanted to try and achieve this year is be a very unpredictable side and not too easy to read and hopefully we'll achieve that this Saturday night.
"I was fairly happy (with the trials), we've had a really good pre-season together and there were really good signs in our first trial together.
"The more game time we get together, the better we're going to be."
Orford also warned his teammates against under-estimating wooden spoon favourites Canberra, reminding them of how they'd been bitten last year.
"Hopefully we can learn our lesson from last year, we took them a little bit easy, they just got out of the blocks really quick and we didn't match it," he said.
"We can't afford to do that this Saturday night because we'll be on the back foot."
Orford said he could empathise with the pressure Lyon was facing in his return to the NRL against Canberra on Saturday, having arrived at the Sea Eagles last year under a similar weight of expectation.
While Orford and his Manly teammates have backed Lyon to be a revelation at five-eighth, the halfback has vowed to step up his game so his halves partner can ease his way back into the NRL after three seasons out.
"Jamie's a player that can cope with the pressure," said Orford.
"I just want him to go out there and relax and not try too hard.
"I'll go out there and play my normal game and if he wants to take a back seat then I'm just going to step it up.
"He's a smart player and he'll pick his times when to play and when to run. He doesn't want to read too much into the hype. He is a pretty laid back character and he'll just ease his way into it."
Orford said it can be tough coming into a new club with high expectations being built up in the media, the former Melbourne half telling Lyon just to focus on building things up slowly.
"The expectation Jamie's got through the media and attention he grabs, they're expecting big things," Orford said.
"I was in pretty much the same position last year coming to a new club and it does take time and I think he understands that.
"We both know we had good trials together and there were good signs but we still need to work on things.
"The sooner we get out there and work together and read each other's game, it's going to be better for us and the club."
Lyon and Orford's form in pre-season trials has Manly officials quietly confident of a big season ahead, Orford admitting the pair had benefited from playing the games in Queensland.
"It's good we were out of the spotlight and there was not too much coverage of how we went," he said.
"All we wanted to try and achieve this year is be a very unpredictable side and not too easy to read and hopefully we'll achieve that this Saturday night.
"I was fairly happy (with the trials), we've had a really good pre-season together and there were really good signs in our first trial together.
"The more game time we get together, the better we're going to be."
Orford also warned his teammates against under-estimating wooden spoon favourites Canberra, reminding them of how they'd been bitten last year.
"Hopefully we can learn our lesson from last year, we took them a little bit easy, they just got out of the blocks really quick and we didn't match it," he said.
"We can't afford to do that this Saturday night because we'll be on the back foot."
