People who Manly should have kept?

[Peter C]

You are forgetting to mention that both Matai and Lyon also had 2 more years to go on their contracts ..... it was simply a case of too much talent at the club and not enough money or places .....

We were dumb there, Matai received a big offer from the Warriors in 2014 for the following year and requested a release, we knocked it back even though we knew he was one neck injury away from retirement

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

G'day all, Gutherson was actually being tried out at 5/8 in reserves at one point.

Yeah, he played in the halves in the reserves.

He's just a footy player, equally effective at centre, 5/8 or fullback. Anyone who saw him play in the juniors and reserves should have known how good he'd become. But then he got injured before he could establish himself in the top grade and I'm guessing we thought we was too injury prone (and possibly too small) to stick with. When Souths wanted to move Walker on (after that incident where he and Aaron Gray overdosed on Oxycodone), Gutho was told to look elsewhere. It was really poor form from the club and I was filthy at the time. Couldn't understand why we'd want Walker anyway, and to an extent I still don't really see him as a Manly player.

The club was making all sorts of dumb decisions at the time.

 

[sheridanstand78]

Some people will leave our club and you wouldn’t be too fussed. I can say though that I was instantly disappointed when I found out that the time of each of these 4 guys would be coming to an end at our club.


Jared Waerea-Hargreaves

Now a 3 time premiership winner. He’s a savage on the field and I always thought he was something special from the moment he started first grade. I will say though that the referee turning a blind eye on him in the 2013 grand final went some way to help the Rorters win that game against us



King Gutho

Our best local product in the backs along with Tom Turbo during the NRL era. A switched on and super fit player who helps his team get over the line by talking heaps and constantly pushing up in support. Has now played 100+ games and has a winning percentage above 50% which is unlike many other Parra players. His letter this week publicly confirmed that Manly showed him the door after initially extending his contract. He’s doing a fantastic job as a first grade captain



Tooves

You only need to look at the Broncos this year to see what happens when your leaders don’t have the guts and steel during tough circumstances. Tooves took a team with stars a little past their prime to the top 4 in 3 consecutive seasons. Misfortune and injustice meant that he would narrowly miss out on a premiership in 2013 and a minor premiership in 2014. 2015 saw our team with one of the worst injury tolls in living memory and some serious off-field ** going on against Toovey. 2 wins and 6 losses after 8 rounds saw us in the deepest ** I have ever seen. But Tooves and the team hung tough to see us miss out on the finals by just 2 competition points and a lesser p/d. Along the way we pumped premiership contenders in the 2nd half of that season including the Broncos by 30 points



Brian Kelly

An electric player in attack. A few of my favourite attacking moments during the Trent Barrett era heavily featured this gutsy and humble lad. Hank Scorpio and Suli had some fine moments in attack but Kelly still produced more in attack than them over the entire 2019 season despite playing for the wooden spooners. Again this year he is providing more in attack than our centres despite less appearances and also playing in a team that has been stuck in the bottom 4. The Titans are looking on the up and their backline should be able to give him better opportunities to showcase his smarts and skills from next season

It would have been great to retain JWH, problem at the time is the Rorters offered triple the coin that we could afford. Remember in 2009, we were finalists the Rorters were wooden spooners and had cash to spend.

Letting Gutho was a mistake. Hes a gun player for the Whinging worms and I think the decision to let him go was poor in hindsight.

There is no doubt that the sacking of Toovey midseason 2015 and bringing in a rookie coach in TB really set our club back as at the end of the 15 and 16 seasons we let so many quality young players go like Gutho, Liam Knight, James Garner, Ramien and Nico Hynes who are all seasoned first graders at their clubs.

Managing the cap is such a tough job and when you get a Holden cup team that made a grand final in 15 and won it in 17, you MUST retain the good players from those teams and the 15 team advantage was squandered. You see the kids from the 17 team emerging and players like Funa, Fainu, Oka are examples of guys who are seriously good players and we have others like Keppie, Anderson and co who are also in the mix,

 

[HoldenV8]

No I didn’t Slinger.

Lyon retired at the end of 2016. Matai in early 2017. In short, about a year into Gutherson’s new contract.

Clearly a better strategy is to have your replacement/s waiting in the wings. Instead, we wound up with Walker from 2016 onwards - a talent, but a troublesome one and on more money from the start at Manly than Gutherson was at that stage. Maybe Souths were paying some of that, I don’t know.

Gutherson was still on around $150k at Parramatta, according to a recent report. Apparently we were subsidising him to play for another club. I know who I would prefer to have playing for Manly - a talented and cleanskin local junior, ahead of another of Fulton’s imported bad boys.

Of course shortly after Gutherson re-signed at Manly in 2015, the DCE deal was announced. That inflated and lengthy deal possibly played as big a reason for his leaving as any concerns about his ACLs.

None of that was Gutherson’s fault. Blame the idiots that mismanaged the club’s operational direction in the 2014/15 timeframe.

100% agree. And you have to remember also that 2016 saw both Killer and Matai missing a lot of games through injury. Gutho would likely have played more and more first grade (provided Zoolander picked him) had we not let him go. In the end we kept on having to play Tom Symonds at centre because of their injuries.

 

[rosco]

Team of ex Eagles players
1. Gutho 8. JWH
2. Hiku 9. Api
3. Ramien 10. Lui
4. Hopoate 11. Lane
5. Whare 12. Garner
6. Green 13. Knight
7. Foran 14. Verilis
15. Hynes 16. Amone
17. Gower 18. Kelly
19. J. Hopoate 20. Williame
21. Chee Kam 22. Oldfield

Think this team would give our current squad a goid run.
Thoughts?

 

[40 nil]

Think this team would give our current squad a goid run.
Thoughts?

Ex Eagles have a better backline, but I think our current forwards are stronger. Probably, the Turbo factor would get the current squad over the line.

 

[maxta]

Ronny Rambo Gibbs....still devestated and it was over 30 years ago
Also glenn stewart, Watmough and Foran
More recently JWH, Keary, Gutho and Lane though not devastating, always showed potential and is a go to in a Hot Eels side

 

[globaleagle]

With injuries to the old war horses ... it is easy to be wise in hindsight .... but I would love to have been reading the posts on here if we had let any of the others go ... ...

If I remember correctly (which I do)... the forum was pretty much filled with comments such as:

"They are heroes!!! Pay them what they want!!!! Let them retire when they want!!!!1111oneoneoneone"

And that was even at the thought at letting them go.

 

[Woodsie]

We were dumb there, Matai received a big offer from the Warriors in 2014 for the following year and requested a release, we knocked it back even though we knew he was one neck injury away from retirement

Agree ... but I and many people would have burnt the grandstand to the ground if we let Matai go ...

 

[lsz]

Agree ... but I and many people would have burnt the grandstand to the ground if we let Matai go ...

The decision made in 2014?

Reports The NZ Warriors Have Made A Massive Offer To Steve Matai

News Limited journalist James Hooper is reporting that the New Zealand Warriors have made a massive offer to Manly Sea Eagles centre Steve Matai. He is reporting that the deal is worth $2.5 million…

www.leaguefreak.com

The year after we made a grand final?

The year he made 25 appearance and scored 13 tries (his second best year ever in terms of tries and appearances)

Steve Matai - Playing Career - RLP

A summary of the career stats for Steve Matai, a rugby league player who represented New Zealand, and also played for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.

www.rugbyleagueproject.org

You would have let him go then????? Damn straight I would have howled at the moon if we had let him go in 2014

 

[manly al]

Seemed a quite straightforward proposition at the time , Walker and Marty in for Gutho and Hiku [ and who were strongly encouraged to leave ] and with a bit of other salary cap adjustment no doubt also .

 

[Woodsie]

You would have let him go then????? Damn straight I would have howled at the moon if we had let him go in 2014

No ... I meant that given his injuries from 2016 onwards .. in hindsight a better long term result would have been to keep Gutho .... but I would never let Matai go for any reason .... one of my 3 favourite all time players ...