Sea Eagles coach keen to see facilities up to NRL standard

SEA Eagles coach Trent Barrett says the club’s proposed $40 million centre of excellence at Narrabeen would allow them to be on par with rival NRL clubs.

Sea Eagles coach Trent Barrett. Picture: Gregg Porteous

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SEA Eagles coach Trent Barrett says the club’s proposed $40 million centre of excellence at Narrabeen would allow them to be on par with rival NRL clubs.

Manly chief executive Tim Cleary has lodged the club’s extensive proposal with the NRL, seeking $20 million to help fund the project.

“It would certainly be a good reward for the club. We have operated on a pretty low budget here for a long time, I understand,” Barrett said.

“The facilities of some of the other clubs are certainly up there so it would be nice to be on par with them. So hopefully we can give that to the players.”

The proposed Centre of Excellence at Narrabeen.

Barrett said centres of excellence such as the one recently opened by Penrith certainly helped.

“You want to give your athletes and your players the best possible chance for them to be the best possible player they can be,” he said.

But he also said the facilities were not the be-all and end-all.

“We don’t have the best facilities here in the competition but we certainly don’t use that as an excuse and we won’t,” he said.

The Sea Eagles are focused on Saturday afternoon’s game with the Storm at Lottoland following their big 35-10 loss to St George Illawarra.

“We were never in it, to be honest. We looked flat and unenthused which is probably the complete opposite of our last three weeks,” Barrett said.

“To concede that many points at home is not on.”