Crawley Files: Manly still have time to turn things around

IT’S easy to say the Sea Eagles’ season is already over but a look at the 2015 ladder and you’ll see why such talk is premature, writes PAUL CRAWLEY.

Manly's Daly Cherry-Evans and Manly's Dylan Walker look on after a Tigers try during the Wests Tigers v Manly rugby league game at Leichhardt Oval, Sydney. Pic Brett Costello

DON’T hang Trent Barrett by his shoelaces from the Brookvale Oval scoreboard just yet. Or put a statue of Jason Taylor on the hill at Leichhardt.

Do you recall what happened at the start of 2015? Let’s put a few things in perspective.

After two rounds last year the NRL ladder read like this: Penrith on top, with the Rabbitohs, Tigers and Knights the only other unbeaten teams.

Seven teams were one from two, but at the bottom the Sharks, Cowboys, Dragons and Titans were all winless.

In fact, Newcastle remained the only unbeaten team after four rounds. By late July, Rick Stone was the first coach sacked.

The Knights finished the year with the wooden spoon and the Panthers and Tigers, both unbeaten after two rounds, were two other sides in the dogfight with them.

In comparison, the Cowboys lost their first three and only scraped home by the hair of Johnathan Thurston’s chin against the Storm in week four in golden point. Then they finished top four and won in golden point again on grand final night, the very last play of the season.

And the Sharks and Dragons, also winless after two rounds, both played finals footy.

The one guarantee is that there will be plenty of ups and downs before we get to round 26 again.

What we’ve seen so far is that the fortunes of every team, and every player, can change so fast. In round one Adam Reynolds had hold of his first NSW Origin jersey, the next minute he was nursing a broken jaw.

Now Billy Slater is gone for the season.

Fans would be wise not to write off the Sea Eagles yet.

When Slater went down last year, most thought the Storm’s hopes would go with him. Then up stepped Cameron Munster.

Right now the Warriors look like they couldn’t beat time with a stick. But are you silly enough to write off the likes of Shaun Johnson, Issac Luke and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck after two rounds?

Or put a pen through the Roosters before Pearce, Cordner and Waerea-Hargreaves return?

Last week the Dragons were awful, but last year they lost their first two and looked gone in round three against Canberra before a memorable comeback sparked their season to life.

Will it be the same for the Dragons when they run out to take on the Rabbitohs at the SCG on Sunday?

Right now Dylan Walker looks like a great centre playing out of position, the fear from many that he might never cut it as an NRL five-eighth. But does that mean Barrett should give up on a summer of preparation after two ordinary games?

Or does the rookie coach back his judgment, like Wayne Bennett did last year with Anthony Milford?

Remember, many had the same concerns about Milford after round one. By season’s end, Milford was among the best in the grand final, when the Broncos got pipped by the side that lost its first three games.

To borrow a line from Vince Lombardi: “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”

The Wests Tigers’ young stars are playing with much more freedom and confidence in 2016.

You look at the way the Tigers are playing right now, their confidence and exuberance, and you can’t help but question: Why didn’t Taylor give them the same freedom last year, allow them to play the Tigers’ brand, instead of trying to turn them into a defensive clone of the Roosters?

It reminds us of a great story about how the Cowboys got their season on track last year.

Paul Green revealed after their first win over the Storm how he had called on sports psychologist, Cliff Mallett, to get his team believing.

The story goes Mallett got the Cowboys playing the children’s game Jenga, where you create a taller tower by carefully destabilising the initial one. At the time, Mallett explained the theory behind it: “We try to get the players to focus on their strengths — to admit that yes, there are things in their game that need improvement, but focusing on their strengths and what they do well will help them under pressure.

“If you continue to worry about what you can’t do, you won’t be thinking about what you can do. The overall mindset is about shifting your thinking from your deficits to your strengths.”

That same week the Cowboys staged a wonderful comeback, from 16-4 down at halftime they won 18-17 in golden point. From that breakthrough, six months later, they made history for their club.

By then everyone had forgotten about what happened back in March, expect the Cowboys obviously, who decided to forget the negatives, and focus on their strengths.

A few teams could learn from that theory right now.

KIDS NEED HELP

It is ridiculous to compare incidents of NRL players touching referees to what happened with the out of control junior on the Central Coast this week. In no way should one be compared to the other.

Anyone who has spent time watching junior football over the years will know of incidents of young boys flying out of control, perhaps not to this degree, but it happens from time to time.

There is no way anyone could, or would, condone the behaviour of the 16-year-old for hitting the referee and then turning on his own teammate. It is wrong in every way.

But only the people at his club, or his close family and friends, could possibly understand what led him to such a violent reaction.

Make no mistake, there would be more to it than simply a 16-year-old reacting to what is going on in the NRL right now.

Let’s hope they don’t give this kid life out of the game straight up, as has been suggested, but offer up some type of counselling and support network to help him deal with obvious problems and, importantly, grow from it. Remember, he is 16.

TOUCHY, TOUCHY

And on NRL players touching referees, there has to be some commonsense in this debate also. What David Klemmer did warranted a reprimand, perhaps a fine, nothing more.

As for the incidents involving Mitchell Moses and Trent Merrin, seriously, get on with the game.

Let’s hope the NRL don’t turn this into another knee-jerk reaction like they did with the shoulder charge farce last season. Surely there are bigger problems to worry about.

Like getting to the bottom of why the NRL paid a recruitment firm $100,000 to find a chief executive to replace Dave Smith, when the bloke they found was working in the same building.

Imagine if that money went to areas in bush football that really need it.

Boo Bailey’s take on James Tedesco’s start to the season.

TEDESCO A MUST, BUT NOT AT FULLBACK

If James Tedesco stays fit and NSW don’t pick him, Queensland will be cheering.

Josh Dugan was the NSW player of the series at fullback last year. But he’ll want to produce some special form in the coming weeks if he’s to hold out the irresistible charge of this young Wests Tigers excitement machine.

When the flying fullback was first coming through the junior ranks at the Tigers, the likes of Robbie Farah were privately thinking to themselves; here comes the next Billy Slater. You can only hold him back for so long.

On Monday night Tedesco scored three tries and ran for 155m in a performance that also included a try assist, three linebreaks, two linebreak assists and 11 tackle busts. Phenomenal.

But if Dugan comes out against the Dragons on Sunday when he returns to fullback and shows his best, the other option for Laurie Daley might be to play Tedesco on the wing. That’s where he played for City last year and he didn’t let the opportunity slip.

Even out of position Tedesco was one of the best on the field.

Originally published as Crawley Files: Manly still have time to turn things around