Manly Leagues hungry to make amends in Sydney Shield
Some heavy soul searching this week at training should see a hungrier Manly Leagues team take on the Moorebank Rams in the Sydney Shield on Sunday, July 21.
The Sea Eagles suffered a 40-22 loss to St Marys at home last week in a match that saw them trail 28-6 before three quick tries saw Manly get back within a converted try.
“It was tough one to swallow from a team perspective. It felt like only half the team showed up to play while the other half didn’t quite bring their A game,” Coach Anthony Watmough said.
“Despite this, we managed to stay in the game until the 75th minute against a strong St Marys team.
“Our boys always find a way to hang in there.
“As a coach, that one stung more than the team as it’s my job to get everyone on the same page and motivated.
“I didn’t do my job well enough last week, but I’m looking forward to this week being different.
“We’re getting some experienced players back to help guide the younger guys.”
It was a slight setback for a Manly Leagues team that has earned themselves plenty of respect in their debut season in the Sydney Shield competition under first time coach Watmough.
For many of the young players in the Manly Leagues team, it is also their first year of playing against more seasoned opponents, with the learning experience only going to be more beneficial to the Sea Eagles in coming seasons.
Manly Leagues sit two points clear in ninth place of the bottom placed Rams with five rounds remaining of the regular season.
The Sea Eagles recorded a 32-28 win over the Rams at Blacktown in round eight.
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Melbourne Storm in staggering move to stop Jason Ryles poaching players to Parramatta
Ryles won’t be allowed to bring in any Storm players in his first year in charge of the Eels as part of his exit agreement.
Newly minted Parramatta coach Jason Ryles will have to look away from Melbourne for new recruitments as part of his exit agreement with the Storm. Nine days after he was appointed as Eels coach on a four-year deal starting in 2025, Ryles was told by the Storm that he could leave at week’s end to begin his work with the struggling NRL side.
While Trent Barrett will remain as interim Eels coach until the end of this campaign, Ryles can work in the background on all planning decisions for next season. The former Melbourne assistant coach will undoubtedly now turn his attention to other clubs’ players as he looks to turn around Parramatta’s fortunes. And foreseeing the possibility of the coach poaching some of Melbourne’s talented young crop, as part of the deal to let him go early he agreed to not bring in any Storm players in his first year in charge of the Eels.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the agreement is not just verbal but is in writing and is similar to what other clubs have stipulated with other coaches in the game. The likes of Bob Fulton and Phil Gould had an agreement in the past not to poach each other’s players without the other’s permission.
And for Ryles, it will prevent him from raiding Melbourne’s prolific backline talent as he searches for Clint Gutherson‘s long-term fullback replacement at Parramatta. This means he will be unable to try and lure Ryan Papenhuyzen or Sua Fa’alogo to the club.
