Slater Vs Stewart

[Mark from Brisbane]

Slater and Stewart

Two of the most pivotal players of the modern era, both ( in their own ways) absolute freaks.

I'm pleased I was alive to see them both play.

Despite what we Manly fans may think about Billy, it's credit where credit is due.

 

[Top End Eagle]

My goodness. Are we still on about Glenn not getting a contract. It wasn't that he wasn't offered one its that what they could offer was insulting. He had played about twelve games in the past two years. He was busted just like his brother is now. He should have just been realistic and told his mates it's time for me to make some coin in England but it turned into the **** fight people are still wanting to trot out now.

He killed it for the bunnies didn't he?

Was the right move.

Move on everyone else. I thought he was a great player for manly. But so were a lot of others who moved on in their later years.

 

[Top End Eagle]

Wish my employer would move me on. I'm busted.

And I'm sure if you found a cushy job which would extend your years, earning capacity wise, but was unfortunately overseas you would take it. Everyone here says Glenn was all class in the way he left the club and didn't say anything publicly.

A fair bit must have been said privately though. That whole affair will always taint those brothers' time at the club. Legends that they were. Any decent fan loved what they did for this club. And any realist could see what management was stuck with after Gift's contract was up at the end of 2014.

 

[Dan]

The only reason I wont fully lay blame on Snake jogging and looking disinterested is that this was endemic of most of the team.

He should have the chance to try and come back.

@KaZa made some good points about us handling this generation poorly and I don't disagree, I just think the issue is more complex that that. We had a massive generation gap between the players, we have aging players that were loyal, that kept a lot at the club, but at some stage you have to have valid changeover. Many of the other clubs had regular rotation of younger talent coming through that made the change less obvious or at least less stark, we just have a lot of guys at once who were coming to the end of their career and the impact of them staying weighs as heavy as the impact of them leaving.

We need to look to the turbos to start the new era now and build them with loyalty. We thought Nate Myles would have been the Ben Kennedy of this era to the new set of younger guys coming through. Unfortunately that didnt happen and he has not had the same impact. However there aren't many BK's on the market, in fact I would say there are none, and very few that have been one club players. If we could get another BK we will have the same culture bread back in.

It isn't all the club a lot of this is situation and perspective. We lacked a single unified leadership of the club, from coach to players and above coach to players. We needed a Dessie to usher us through this period, however we had Toovey who was a different beast to Des and got shafted and now we have a young guy, this is just the wrong time to be having someone like Barrett in the club.

Dessie coming back will help us rebuild, and now that the 20's dont exist anymore we should see him able to have better control that makes sense for the club, realistically it was his ideas and ignoring the 20's that started a lot of the riffs, but in the end he was right

 

[midsteyne]

even if Slater does come back,it will be short lived,recovery is one thing with shoulders but the thought of doing it again is another,he will be half his former self if he survives the trial games,then the big boys will test his resolve in the season proper.however he may do the first games then retire on medical grounds like Snake should.

 

[NFN2IT]

I cant comment too much without knowing what was told to you by this individual but as much as these guys are legends of the club and were loyal, the stewarts, watmough, foran, matai, killer, you need to remember that the club needs to move on eventually and bring in the next group that will hopefully become as successful as the last lot.

Everyone has been angry everytime one of those legends left because the club let them go but i dont necessarily think they were bad choices now when you think about it.
Glen S - had a couple injury plagued years before we let him go and when he went to souths, how long did he end up lasting? A few games before he got another long term injury and ended up going to ESL.
Watmough - it was reported one of the reasons he was upset was because we only offered him 2 years and he wanted 4 year contract. He went to the eels and lasted one season (or two?) And was too busted to go on.
Foran - for whatever reason he left and took up rich 4 year deal at the eels. Lasted a handful of games and had a meltdown and didnt even get through 1 year of his 4 year contract.
Ballin - 2 acl injuries in 2 years

Can you imagine the dramas and salary cap issues if we kept them on new deals and all that unfolded over a few seasons with us instead of the other clubs they went to?

I have bumped into a certain individual who works at the club during a job i was doing. He told me theres more to the story that i dont really want to make public. Theres just more to the story about Stewart.. Matai and even Lyon's "retirement". It happened early last season with quite a few players that were told would not be required.

Call me old fashioned but i believe this club has had so much success due to the culture that was created. Its not whether Stewart can be fit 100% or not.. its how we treat them. We had so much loyalty over the years that players stayed for unders. The Glenn Stewart saga was the start of the downfall. Not even offering the guy a contract? For some of the dross that came through the following season was astounding to me.

We have the likes of Buhrer and Ballin forced out.. now Brett Matai and Lyon. "Manly men". I get they are aging but there is away to do it. The way this club has handled this generation has been a spectacular fail in my book. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course. For me.. it is sad the way it has all played out. Watmough and Foran left due to the lack of loyalty shown to G Stewart. The way we are treating the other players.. just goes to show Manly has just joined the other clubs and run everything like a business. Destroying loyalty and our culture in the process. Who will teach that to the next breed? Wonder what the Turbos will be thinking when they get closer to the end of their careers.. May as well leave for more money as Manly will just shaft me anyway when they want to. Loyalty is a two way street and i think we showed our hands with the way things have been dealt.

Club to me feels different. Will always support the club but the light has faded. Its not the Manly i grew up with. What made us different to the rest. I may be in a minority but its the way i feel.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

**** the bastards for sacking Ray Ritchie straight after taking them to a Grandfinal .... never did that in my day. And yeah, Fatty Vautin deserved to be told to piss off after captaining us in a Grandfinal win.

wouldn't see that sh1t happening back when we had culture!

You stole my thunder Woodsie.

I was going to mention Ron Willey in '74 along with Herman Hamilton. John O'Neill went home to Souths because he didn't like what was happening at Manly at the time.

Dial forward to 1984 and the complete overreaction by the Club to the loss to Souths in the semis - ironically a loss orchestrated by Ron Willey. Local junior John Harvey was shown the door after just one season back in Manly colours. Another prominent local junior that year, fullback Steve Hegarty, left for Brisbane.

Concurrently Alan Thompson was
forced to retire from playing and take up coaching. He wanted to play on. Anyone who remembers Manly's 1985 campaign can only wish that Thommo had still been out on the park directing the play.

There are many other examples.

Yep, the more things change the more they stay the same. Regardless of whether you're running a 'club' or a 'business.'

 

[court83]

Not like this is a new thing... I remember ages ago, this club legend that took unders to stick with manly when other clubs offered him much biger coin was desperate to play one more year with manly, but we shuffled him off without a second thought... He ended up playing another 3 or 4 years of awesome footy with an esl club... I was filthy we didnt grant his wish of a final season after all he did for the club.. His name was steven something.... Menza, meznoni, menzies.. Something like that

 

[KaZa]

Not like this is a new thing... I remember ages ago, this club legend that took unders to stick with manly when other clubs offered him much biger coin was desperate to play one more year with manly, but we shuffled him off without a second thought... He ended up playing another 3 or 4 years of awesome footy with an esl club... I was filthy we didnt grant his wish of a final season after all he did for the club.. His name was steven something.... Menza, meznoni, menzies.. Something like that

All great and all.. but you are missing the point.

It was handled ALOT better than the recent players.

 

[rifraff]

The only reason I wont fully lay blame on Snake jogging and looking disinterested is that this was endemic of most of the team.

Not a Slater fan but how many storm supporters think he should retire and how many Manly fans think Snake should.

I think that is the telling thing. One from injuries or not seemed disinterested at times and the other did not.