Brutal selection call Manly coach Anthony Seibold has to make

There’s one question haunting Manly coach Anthony Seibold as he watches his side’s 2023 season waste away in ugly fashion.

Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold looks on as he is interviewed pre-game during the round eight NRL match between Wests Tigers and Manly Sea Eagles at Campbelltown Stadium on April 23, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

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What do you do with an $800,000 playmaker best known for being flighty, unfit and contracted?

That’s the question haunting Anthony Seibold, the coach stuck with a running five-eighth who isn’t a five-eighth and who also doesn’t like running.

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Manly’s defeat to the Roosters last Thursday was another typical Sea Eagles collapse, one that has heaped fresh pressure on the beleaguered Josh Schuster.

The misfiring-yet-tremendously remunerated prodigy dished up a trademark tasting plate in the 26-16 loss, with one terrific chip-and-chase try lost amid 79 other minutes of misdirected passes and snoozing.

Despite being one of the most aesthetically titillating ballhandlers when in full flight, Manly fans are growing increasingly frustrated with Schuster and his catastrophic return-on-investment.

Calls are growing for him to be banished back to the second-row, although some prefer he be banished to reggies even despite questions whether he’d fit the changeroom- and this isn’t a crack at his weight, it’s his wallet.

Josh Schuster is yet to hit his straps in the number six jersey.

Signed on a reported $800,000 on the proviso he’d play five-eighth and brain it, Schuster’s move to a primary playmaker role has been a bust.

Usually such a backfire would be easily addressed in the normal world- but Manly isn’t the normal world.

With Sea Eagles recruiters recently extending the 22-year-old for three years on the same cash - despite his poor form AND knowing he’ll be moved back to an edge next year to accommodate new arrival Luke Brooks - it shows Schuster’s not the only guy at the club who likes doing things ‘no-look’.

Considering he was shopped around only months earlier - and not even the Tigers were keen on him - it’s been an impulse purchase akin to shelling out for a boob job and implanting them on your back.

While Seibold has endured his fair share of challenges over the journey, Schuster would be inflicting him major indigestion.

Manly coach Anthony Seibold (L) has a tough call to make. Picture: NRL Photos

An intense clam who never comments on operational matters, Seibold has maintained a public message of faith in his beleaguered playmaker.

His captain, on the other hand, has not.

Daly Cherry-Evans has already made attempts to light a fire under Schuster by publicly questioning his desire, but this has not been enough to shake him out of his selective participation.

Images of Schuster jogging in pre-season had fans dreaming of a new saviour, especially in light of Tom Trbojevic’s slow evolution in to a digestive biscuit.

But it appears the mere act of running was the five-eighth’s version of training at altitude- and it’s leaving fans missing Kieran Foran.

Manly star Daly Cherry-Evanshas made his feelings clear about Schuster. Picture: NRL Imagery

It’s a sad state of affairs when a club needs to cut adrift a warrior like Foran to free up the money needed to secure a backrower who might be good at five-eighth.

But in the behavioural science of NRL recruitment, it’s par for the course.

In a dearth of playmakers, it’s a case ‘if we don’t buy you, someone else will.’

This has lead to a wave of long-term investments made on spec in the hope they repay faith by the end of the deal - which they do, but it’s usually somewhere else.

There’s only genuine solution to the Schuster problem, and that’s Cliff Lyons.

As a like-for-like replacement, Schuster’s $800k would be better spent on the wily playmaker. Not only is he still playing, he’s also in comparable physical shape with superior ball skills.

Plus considering he’d only cost a carton of Holiday 40’s every week, the club would save hundreds.

- Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad.

He’s never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Originally published as Brutal selection call Manly coach Anthony Seibold has to make