This doesn't involve the Eels but it's still footy.
A couple of interesting things:
1) Tony Williams playing centre for Manly
2) The Sharkie's 'recruit players nobody wants' policy hasn't helped them as far as crossing the line goes
3) Somewhat humourous that the fight involved 2 guys who played together at the Knights.
Manly five-eighth Jamie Lyon put his hand up to be the Sea Eagles' new leader with a dominant performance in their 18-4 NRL trial win over Cronulla at Toyota Stadium.
A significant hole has been left in the Sea Eagles' line-up following the departure offormer captain Matt Orford to England, but Lyon showed he is more thancapable of taking over playmaking duties by setting up two second-halftries.Manlyrookie Keiran Foran and promising youngster Trent Hodkinson shared thehalfback role during the hit-out, but it was Lyon who handled most ofthe kicking and playmaking responsibilities during his 40 minutes onthe field.
Lyon has been mentioned as a possible co-captain forManly this year, with the NSW Origin star seemingly rising to thechallenge of a leadership role. He came up with a piece of brilliancefor Manly's second try early in the third quarter.
The formerTest star tried a short kick, only to have it rebound off a Sharksdefender and back into his hands, before flicking a clever ball out theback to Glenn Stewart, who sent big centre Tony Williams over out wide.
Inthe 50th minute, Lyon was involved again when he kicked across fieldfor left centre Dean Whare to score for his new club after shiftingfrom St George Illawarra.
Cronulla and Manly used a lot ofyounger and inexperienced players in the first two quarters, with thebig guns turning out for the final two periods.
Sea Eaglesfullback Brett Stewart played in the second half and had some nicetouches from the back, including a miraculous one-handed flick passthrough his legs.
In the 58th minute a scuffle broke out afterStewart was tackled heavily into his own goal-posts. After taking aTrent Barrett bomb, Stewart was forced heavily into the padding, withplayers coming together for a brief period.
Minutes later thefrustration boiled over, with Cronulla prop Kade Snowden punching onwith counterpart Josh Perry after a play-the-ball.
Snowden was sin-binned, but the Sharks were allowed to keep 13 players on the field.
TheSea Eagles looked reasonably fluent in the wet conditions whileCronulla struggled, a Ben Pomeroy consolation try with 10 minutesremaining proved their only joy.
Manly coach Des Hasler said the2008 champions were well positioned to handle Orford's departurethrough Lyon, Hodkinson and Foran.
"We're fortunate we've got young Trent and Keiran as well, so we're pretty well covered there,'' he said.
"Itwas OK, it was just a trial. We had a lot of players getting theoff-season cobwebs out, the boys have just done a really longoff-season so they were just keen to play.
"The conditions were pretty tough.''
Cronulla's loss was worsened by two injuries to their outside backs.
Former Wests Tigers back Dean Collis hyperextended his right knee, but is expected back for round one.
And 19-year-old NRL hopeful Stewart Mills had to be stretchered off in the first half after damaging his right knee.
Sharks coach Ricky Stuart said the conditions made the trial difficult to gauge.
"It was good actually, both teams were able to release a little bit of tension from the off-season,'' Stuart said.
"Youcould tell there was a trend of wanting to play dry weather footy andit was a bit disappointing for us that we didn't get any opportunitywith the footy, especially in that second 40.''
Replies
A couple of interesting things:
1) Tony Williams playing centre for Manly
2) The Sharkie's 'recruit players nobody wants' policy hasn't helped them as far as crossing the line goes
3) Somewhat humourous that the fight involved 2 guys who played together at the Knights
Albert Kelly sounds like he played well, with him being compared to Peachey and Preston Campbell (this may be wishful thinking at the moment though). He was a bit tough too, when he smashed Stewart into the goal post. I didn't think he had it in him, although I have noticed he has bulked up a lot in the off-season (atleast his top half anyway).
Unfortunately one of the young players with promise, Stewart Mills had to be stretchered off. He was supposedly doing some excellent things until he got injured 1/2 a metre out from the tryline but will be out, probably for the season...(memories....this is sounding just like 2009).
Kade Snowden played and fought well too...
Its funny that the Sharks actually seemed to play better in the first half when all the young players were on than they did when the old ones came on in the second half, although this could also be due to Manly also having their young ones on first.
Not to make any excuses but the weather was ridiculous and the torrential rain meant for heaps of dropped balls and mistakes from both sides. I don't think it would have been a very enjoyable game to watch, thats for sure...Also, we had a few good players missing, such as Ferguson, Gallen and Tupou.
Never mind, its only a trial, I suppose.....
In all honestly, I think both these time will be in the bottom 4
Doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things...There have been many years that the Sharks have won all their trials and then gone crap in the games that count. Hopefully it works in reverse.
Either way I CANT WAIT til the season begins...
They will be there or there abouts.