I'm not going to lie, the last 24 months have been catastrophic for the Manly Sea Eagles club and its faithful. As diehard Manly fan, it isn’t easy to put into words the frustration as I watched each game featuring Manly in the 2016 season.
It wasn’t the consistent, entertaining Manly that their fans are used to. In fact, it was the exact the opposite. The Sea Eagles slumped to its worst ladder position in 11 years, falling to a disastrous 13th place.
But with the Manly "never give up" mentality still in the hearts of the players, the Sea Eagles set out to 2017 looking for some spark to bring back it’s superior flight. It may be safe to say that the long and impressive golden era has come to an end but there is no reason why the Brookvale boys can’t turn things around.
Since 2005 to 2014 Manly made the finals each year and in that time period made four grand final appearances clinching the Premiership twice with our beloved Des Hasler.
After the disastrous 2015 season, we sent out two club favourites, coach Geoff Toovey and our superstar Kiwi five-eighth Kieran Foran. That set out a new dynamic roster change with the likes of Martin Taupau, Lewis Brown and Nate Myles all joining the club.
We also welcomed a new coach in Trent Barrett, trusted by Bob Fulton to take charge and make drastic changes that will see out a better year than 2015. We can now say that was a failure. Although a failure, we saw glimpses of magic that I believe can spark 2017 as a good year for Many Sea Eagles.
Frequent injuries saw Tom Trbojevic taking Brett Stewart’s fullback position and boy was he amazing. Tom and Jake, the Mona Vale Brothers will definitely have a brighter future and for the Manly faithful, we all hope that is in a maroon and white jersey.
Going into 2017 Trent Barrett has passed on his rookie coaching season and we all are crossing our fingers that he can bring better things to the Northern Beaches.
We will see our 10 million dollar man, the new skipper, Daly Cherry-Evans strut onto the park with experienced Blake Green as his halves partner. It has been a long time since DCE had a consistent halves partner, so with Blake Green, it will be nice for DCE to have a bit of pressure taken off his shoulders.
The Trbojevic brothers will definitely light up the season and don’t be surprised if one of the turbo brothers are seen representing NSW in the State of Origin. With our forward pack being a weakness last year we are hoping hard hitters Darcy Lussick, Martin Taupau and Nate Myles can find their groove and bring success.
Lightning quick dummy half Api Korisau will certainly be the full-time hooker with Matt Parcell departing and I can’t wait to see what he has in store as he is a highly entertaining player to watch. If veterans Brett Stewart and Steve Matai are not fit for the start, we will be seeing a new look backline which will probably consist of: Tom Trbojevic, Akuila Uate, Matthew Wright, Dylan Walker and Jorge Taufua.
2017 opens up a new fresh year and Sea Eagles are hoping to at least squeeze a Top 8 finish after two years being out of the playoff picture.
With the golden era leaving us, can we see a rebirth? Can we see the Sea Eagles take flight once again?
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