Phil Rothfield: Great form of Manly Sea Eagles masks huge dramas at the NRL club
IT’S amazing the Manly Sea Eagles continue to lead the premiership given the player disharmony eating away at the club.
Opinion
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IT’S amazing that the Manly Sea Eagles continue to lead the premiership on the back of the incredible will to win of the senior playing group.
This club is not a happy place right now, despite the smiling faces you see most weeks on Channel 9 and Fox Sports’ coverage of their games.
The anger over management’s refusal to make long-serving forward Glenn Stewart an offer has again been reignited by other recent player deals.
Jamie Buhrer recently signed a big-money, three-year deal and another back-rower Jesse Sene-Lefao is about to extend his contract.
Players are asking how Manly can find more than $350,000 for these two but couldn’t at the very least make the 2011 Clive Churchill Medal winner an offer.
The biggest problem for an under-fire front office is Brett Stewart.
The flying fullback is on a mission on the field but not happy off it.
He feels his brother has been disrespected and is first out of the dressing sheds these days.
Hard-as-nails centre Steve Matai has received a massive four-year deal offer from the Warriors and wants out.
He is the first Sea Eagles star to go public and reveal his true feelings.
“Glenn and I are quite close and I’m disappointed with the club,” Matai told a New Zealand newspaper over the weekend.
“They didn’t do their best to try to keep him here when he’s one of a core group that has been together for a long time.
“It might have a snowball effect on other senior players. We’ve been together for 10 years and for the club not to see the culture we’ve built is disappointing.”
A season ago he would have said no to the Warriors. But with the loyalty chain broken, he and other players now want to go.
The other problem surrounds the Sea Eagles’ outstanding five-eighth Kieran Foran.
Foran wants to see where Manly are going before committing to a long-term deal extension.
All these issues face coach Geoff Toovey before he gets to gun halfback Daly Cherry-Evans , whose negotiations are now on delay until the end of next season when he plans to test the market.
Manly have been in four of the past seven grand finals and could make another this season.
But to say the future is bright is wrong. Long term, it is anything but.
Refs deserve axe over video blooper
NO one minds referees making mistakes because they have been doing so since 1908.
However, it’s a different story when they blunder by ignoring the available video referee technology.
Shayne Hayne refused to go upstairs when he disallowed Wests Tigers winger David Nofoaluma’s opening try of the game against Manly at Brookvale on Friday night.
It became a 12-point mistake because Manly scored at the other end soon afterwards.
The NRL has no choice but to drop Hayne to NSW Cup this week.
This will be a difficult decision for Todd Greenberg and Tony Archer because they are two men who hate admitting they are wrong.
Future bright at Sharks
WHO says the Cronulla Sharks have no future?
Five players from the club were selected in the Australian Schoolboys team on Friday night — Ashley Nisbet, Connor Tracey, Jayden Walker, Jayden Brailey and Keenan Yorston.
Four of them are local juniors.
Unlike the ones that got away — Michael Lichaa, Tyrone Peachey and Chad Townsend — officials are determined to sign this next batch of stars to long-term deals.
HIGHLIGHT
The Swans’ 12th win in a row over Carlton on Saturday night to equal a 79-year record. They are the most exciting team in Australian sport in any code.
LOWLIGHT
The Parramatta Eels’ first half performance against the Warriors. They looked and played like last year’s wooden spooners.
CASHING IN
TAB will have taken in excess of $3 million bets on the World Cup after the final.
That is more than has been taken on the NRL season so far.
The final will be twice as popular with punters than State of Origin game three.
MEMBER BACKLASH
I got a text message from Manly Sea Eagles tragic Matty Shrivell on Sunday morning following my Sunday Telegraph story on the upcoming death of suburban grounds. It read: “The day they announce Manly are no longer playing home games on the northern beaches is the day I end my membership and start taking my children to Rat Park for the local rugby union games.”
SPOTTED
The Wests Tigers players farewelling retiring forward Liam Fulton with a beer and a bet at the Oatley Hotel on Saturday afternoon.
ON THE ATTACK
The Warriors have emerged as premiership dark horses after the demolition of Parramatta.
No side in the comp has as much attacking power.
It’s why the TAB has slashed their odds from $41 to $13 in six weeks. Discipline and consistency will be the key.
NO JOKE
This is proof the NRL Integrity Unit is out of control. After receiving a complaint from a Brisbane woman, boss Alby Taylor phoned the NSWRL during Origin camp to reveal he would be conducting an investigation into why a couple of players had glued a $2 coin to the pavement as a cheap prank to fool the passer-by.
Originally published as Phil Rothfield: Great form of Manly Sea Eagles masks huge dramas at the NRL club
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