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Manly Warringah Sea Eagles season 2018 review: They didn’t know how to manage the players who ‘walk to a different beat’
THE Sea Eagles only avoided the wooden spoon by two competition points, winning just seven of their 24 games.
7:40PM
They also secured their worst season of average crowds at Brookvale Oval in more than 50 years (8,630), lost their coach mid-contract, and had top brass suspended over salary cap breaches.
Looking back on the horror season of the eight-time premiers on NRL 360, veteran league journalist Paul Crawley said the Daly Cherry-Evans and Jackson Hastings punch-on in Gladstone was the critical moment for the side’s on-field breakdown.
“I look at that roster and it should not be sitting in 15th spot,” Crawley began.
“I go back to the Jackson Hastings incident, for me that was kind of like the moment that Trent Barrett may have shown his inexperience.
“Because if you’ve got that squad and they’ve lost Blake Green and they were looking for the right replacement, [Lachlan] Croker had been injured, and Jackson Hastings is the best man to be partnering [Daly] Cherry-Evans in the halves.
“Surely there should’ve been a way of getting those two blokes in a room and saying, ‘We’ve got to sort this out for the betterment of the team. We’ll walk out, we’ll shake hands, and we’ll get on with putting our best foot forward’.”
Host Paul Kent agreed, saying the club’s poor handling of Hastings — who was relegated to reserve grade and ignored despite a spate of injuries to players in his best positions — had a destructive effect on the NRL side.
“Where Manly struggled this year is in every football club there are players who will just walk to a different beat and Manly have a couple of them,” he said.
“Manly were unable to accept Jackson Hastings, and I dare say Marty Taupau as well, into that group environment and it became an issue most glaringly with Jackson Hastings.
“It festered and the inability to handle that the correct way, and a way other more experienced administrations and coaches would’ve done that, I think it just drove a wedge into the team that they just never recovered from.”
STATS THAT MATTER
— Their seven wins is their fewest in a season since 2003 (also seven).
— Conceded 56 points at Brookvale against the Roosters, the equal most points they have conceded at the venue (56 v Bulldogs in 2003).
— They won just three of 12 matches against Bottom eight teams, the worst record of any team.
— Shaun Lane and Tom Trbojevic were the leading try scorer with just nine tries. The last time the Sea Eagles leading try scorer in a season scored less than 10 tries was in 1992 when Craig Hancock scored nine tries.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
When they were hot, they were hot
The Storm were missing Cameron Smith and Jesse Bromwich, but their star-studded backline led by Cameron Munster and Billy Slater was still fully intact — and the Sea Eagles handed them a spanking.
Curtis Scott was of course sent off for fracturing Dylan Walker’s cheekbone in the second half, but the Sea Eagles had Walker and API Koroisau sent to the bin, and just proved too good at AAMI Park.
That 24-4 result in round 11 was a week after they had dominated the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium to run out winners 38-24.
For two glorious weeks in May, Manly were on fire. Unfortunately, Trent Barrett’s men lost a one-point thriller to Canberra the week after, and only registered three more wins for the rest of the season.
WHAT WENT WRONG
More like what didn’t go wrong.
It’s a miracle that the club managed to avoid its first ever wooden spoon.
Anything that could go awry for the Sea Eagles did this season.
Being pinged for breaching the salary cap over a five-year period set the standard for their horror year.
It resulted in their maximum spend on players being slashed for this year and next, and COO Neil Bare and former CEO Joe Kelly copping lengthy suspensions.
Skipper Daly Cherry-Evans then traded blows with Jackson Hastings on a trip away, Hastings was subsequently relegated to park footy and not called up again despite a long term injury to Api Koroisau.
Four wins from their first 15 games led to record low crowds at Lottoland, and most destructive of all was a civil war waged between head coach Trent Barrett and the club’s hierarchy.
Everyone of their stakeholders will be relieved the season’s now over, so they’ll be saved the week-to-week suffering for a few months. But they are by no means through the worst of it.
The club is in such disarray that Brad Fittler called for a second attempt at a merger with the North Sydney Bears, who are in such a strong financial position they were ready to make a bid for the Gold Coast Titans’ licence. The Bears have also spent years cultivating a strong relationship with the people of the Central Coast, one of NSW rugby league’s strongest junior nurseries.
So, as Fittler said it could create a “behemoth of a club”.
I’m sure it sounds pretty attractive to a club whose skipper Daly Cherry-Evans told Fox Sports ’ League Life last month that he wouldn’t stand in the way of his teammates leaving the Narrabeen-based club.
“Certainly I wouldn’t begrudge anyone else for looking after themselves,” he said at the time.
“That’s always what I’ve been able to do is make sure I look after myself and put myself in the best position to play good footy. And I’d never begrudge a teammate for going and doing something like that.”
THE STAR
Tom Trbojevic
Tommy Turbo continues to be a shining light on Sydney’s northern beaches.
He’s inarguably one of the game’s superstars, and he’s still only 21.
Manly’s fullback is sure to again feature heavily in 2018 highlights reels, he’s one of those rare players that has fans on the edge of their seats every time he touches the ball.
Even with all the issues the club was dealing with on and off the park, and the instability of the team’s spine, Trbojevic finished the year with 19 try-assists and nine tries.
He had a breakout Origin series for the Blues too, where he was even mentioned as a Player of the Series contender … from the wing.
The problem for the Sea Eagles is that they already seem to rely on him too heavily.
It doesn’t happen too often but when the prodigious No.1 has a poor game, the rest of the team struggles to cover for him.
THE SURPRISE PACKET
Addin Fonua-Blake
Picking a Kiwi and Tongan international might not be seen as bold, but there’s no denying the powerhouse prop has gone to another level in 2018.
In partnership with Marty Taupau, Fonua-Blake wreaked havoc in the middle third this season.
He is tied 16th in the competition for metres gained, but a glaring example of how effective he is with the ball in hand is the fact he has the same number of metres as Andrew Fifita (2,904) and yet he’s had 104 less charges.
Still only 22, Fonua-Blake also had less carries than the likes of the Burgesses, Paul Gallen, Joe Ofahengaue and Viliame Kikau and chewed up far more ground.
With both he and Taupau contracted until the end of 2020, and with Jake Trbojevic providing further mobility and a tireless work ethic, Manly will have one of the benchmark scrums for next couple of seasons at least.
GRADE: F
Sums up the sesason really well this review
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles season 2018 review: They didn’t know how to manage the players who ‘walk to a different beat’
THE Sea Eagles only avoided the wooden spoon by two competition points, winning just seven of their 24 games.
- September 5, 2018 12:35pm
- Joe McDonough
- Source: FOX SPORTS
7:40PM
They also secured their worst season of average crowds at Brookvale Oval in more than 50 years (8,630), lost their coach mid-contract, and had top brass suspended over salary cap breaches.
Looking back on the horror season of the eight-time premiers on NRL 360, veteran league journalist Paul Crawley said the Daly Cherry-Evans and Jackson Hastings punch-on in Gladstone was the critical moment for the side’s on-field breakdown.
“I look at that roster and it should not be sitting in 15th spot,” Crawley began.
“I go back to the Jackson Hastings incident, for me that was kind of like the moment that Trent Barrett may have shown his inexperience.
“Because if you’ve got that squad and they’ve lost Blake Green and they were looking for the right replacement, [Lachlan] Croker had been injured, and Jackson Hastings is the best man to be partnering [Daly] Cherry-Evans in the halves.
“Surely there should’ve been a way of getting those two blokes in a room and saying, ‘We’ve got to sort this out for the betterment of the team. We’ll walk out, we’ll shake hands, and we’ll get on with putting our best foot forward’.”
Host Paul Kent agreed, saying the club’s poor handling of Hastings — who was relegated to reserve grade and ignored despite a spate of injuries to players in his best positions — had a destructive effect on the NRL side.
“Where Manly struggled this year is in every football club there are players who will just walk to a different beat and Manly have a couple of them,” he said.
“Manly were unable to accept Jackson Hastings, and I dare say Marty Taupau as well, into that group environment and it became an issue most glaringly with Jackson Hastings.
“It festered and the inability to handle that the correct way, and a way other more experienced administrations and coaches would’ve done that, I think it just drove a wedge into the team that they just never recovered from.”
STATS THAT MATTER
— Their seven wins is their fewest in a season since 2003 (also seven).
— Conceded 56 points at Brookvale against the Roosters, the equal most points they have conceded at the venue (56 v Bulldogs in 2003).
— They won just three of 12 matches against Bottom eight teams, the worst record of any team.
— Shaun Lane and Tom Trbojevic were the leading try scorer with just nine tries. The last time the Sea Eagles leading try scorer in a season scored less than 10 tries was in 1992 when Craig Hancock scored nine tries.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
When they were hot, they were hot
The Storm were missing Cameron Smith and Jesse Bromwich, but their star-studded backline led by Cameron Munster and Billy Slater was still fully intact — and the Sea Eagles handed them a spanking.
Curtis Scott was of course sent off for fracturing Dylan Walker’s cheekbone in the second half, but the Sea Eagles had Walker and API Koroisau sent to the bin, and just proved too good at AAMI Park.
That 24-4 result in round 11 was a week after they had dominated the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium to run out winners 38-24.
For two glorious weeks in May, Manly were on fire. Unfortunately, Trent Barrett’s men lost a one-point thriller to Canberra the week after, and only registered three more wins for the rest of the season.
WHAT WENT WRONG
More like what didn’t go wrong.
It’s a miracle that the club managed to avoid its first ever wooden spoon.
Anything that could go awry for the Sea Eagles did this season.
Being pinged for breaching the salary cap over a five-year period set the standard for their horror year.
It resulted in their maximum spend on players being slashed for this year and next, and COO Neil Bare and former CEO Joe Kelly copping lengthy suspensions.
Skipper Daly Cherry-Evans then traded blows with Jackson Hastings on a trip away, Hastings was subsequently relegated to park footy and not called up again despite a long term injury to Api Koroisau.
Four wins from their first 15 games led to record low crowds at Lottoland, and most destructive of all was a civil war waged between head coach Trent Barrett and the club’s hierarchy.
Everyone of their stakeholders will be relieved the season’s now over, so they’ll be saved the week-to-week suffering for a few months. But they are by no means through the worst of it.
The club is in such disarray that Brad Fittler called for a second attempt at a merger with the North Sydney Bears, who are in such a strong financial position they were ready to make a bid for the Gold Coast Titans’ licence. The Bears have also spent years cultivating a strong relationship with the people of the Central Coast, one of NSW rugby league’s strongest junior nurseries.
So, as Fittler said it could create a “behemoth of a club”.
I’m sure it sounds pretty attractive to a club whose skipper Daly Cherry-Evans told Fox Sports ’ League Life last month that he wouldn’t stand in the way of his teammates leaving the Narrabeen-based club.
“Certainly I wouldn’t begrudge anyone else for looking after themselves,” he said at the time.
“That’s always what I’ve been able to do is make sure I look after myself and put myself in the best position to play good footy. And I’d never begrudge a teammate for going and doing something like that.”
THE STAR
Tom Trbojevic
Tommy Turbo continues to be a shining light on Sydney’s northern beaches.
He’s inarguably one of the game’s superstars, and he’s still only 21.
Manly’s fullback is sure to again feature heavily in 2018 highlights reels, he’s one of those rare players that has fans on the edge of their seats every time he touches the ball.
Even with all the issues the club was dealing with on and off the park, and the instability of the team’s spine, Trbojevic finished the year with 19 try-assists and nine tries.
He had a breakout Origin series for the Blues too, where he was even mentioned as a Player of the Series contender … from the wing.
The problem for the Sea Eagles is that they already seem to rely on him too heavily.
It doesn’t happen too often but when the prodigious No.1 has a poor game, the rest of the team struggles to cover for him.
THE SURPRISE PACKET
Addin Fonua-Blake
Picking a Kiwi and Tongan international might not be seen as bold, but there’s no denying the powerhouse prop has gone to another level in 2018.
In partnership with Marty Taupau, Fonua-Blake wreaked havoc in the middle third this season.
He is tied 16th in the competition for metres gained, but a glaring example of how effective he is with the ball in hand is the fact he has the same number of metres as Andrew Fifita (2,904) and yet he’s had 104 less charges.
Still only 22, Fonua-Blake also had less carries than the likes of the Burgesses, Paul Gallen, Joe Ofahengaue and Viliame Kikau and chewed up far more ground.
With both he and Taupau contracted until the end of 2020, and with Jake Trbojevic providing further mobility and a tireless work ethic, Manly will have one of the benchmark scrums for next couple of seasons at least.
GRADE: F
Sums up the sesason really well this review
