Manly still smarting from Warringah defeat last season
THE Manly Marlins are chasing more than competition points in Saturday’s Shute Shield grudge match against Warringah – they are out to restore pride.
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THE Manly Marlins are chasing a lot more than competition points in Saturday’s Shute Shield grudge match against Warringah at Manly Oval – they will be out to restore pride.
The Marlins are on the top of the ladder, undefeated after nine games, but they are still haunted by what occurred last time the teams met in their second game last year.
Warringah won 43-17 at Rat Park – and defeated Manly in the other three grades.
“It was one of the most embarrassing days in Manly’s recent history and I was part of it, doing defence work,” Manly head coach Brian Melrose said.
“It was just a game where the Rats played really well and you might say Manly didn’t do themselves very proud.
“It was a day that didn’t represent the club very well, so we’ve got to try and fix that. We need to regain a little bit of pride in this match.”
That will add more intrigue to what promises to be an epic showdown between the fierce rivals in front of a packed house.
“People can talk about where we are (on the ladder) but, alI I know is, last year there was 160 minutes of the (Shute Shield) derby matches played and Warringah definitively won 120 minutes of them,” Melrose said.
“So if we don’t turn up with a bit more than we did in the last week or two, then potentially all the spoils are with the Rats.”
Melrose said while the Marlins had worked hard to rebuild respect, these derbies tended to have a life of their own.
“It doesn’t matter what has happened in the last nine rounds and it matters very little what happened in the last nine years, either,” Melrose said.
“It just means the next version of the derby match is this Saturday – and we are a long way second.”
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