Manly’s ‘biggest issue’ after ugly revelation

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Apparently there were punches thrown between Josh Schuster and Dean Matterson at training, with Josh Aloiai having to intervene and break it up.

To me, that’s not the problem here.

The amount of fights I saw at training could fill three columns. The real issue is the fact that it became public. That it happened is irrelevant. You’ve got testosterone-fuelled athletes, young men in their late teens or 20s, and stuff like this happens a lot more than you might think.

It’s a professional sport and most of the time you move on and nobody outside the club is ever aware of what happened.

That’s why this is a problem for Manly. Why it got made public is the biggest issue for the club to get to the bottom of.

You look at Schuster and you can see what an amazing amount of talent he has, but he simply doesn’t look fit.

He turns 22 on Friday, so there’s still time for him to turn that around, but he needs to get it sorted out quick smart.

It comes down to hard work, and it needs to happen now. If you get to 24-25 years old, and that work ethic hasn’t been instilled in you, that’s probably too late.

He’s got to want it, and when you’re earning the money he’s reportedly earning, and you haven’t had to do the hard work in the past, it’s really hard to change.

The reality of the NRL these days is that there’s so many spots available that you can last longer than you should if you’re not fit, particularly if you’re blessed with natural skill. But at some point that will catch up with you.

Only he can put in the effort to change. There’s plenty of help available, but it comes down to Schuster wanting to do the work.

Maybe the comments from Daly Cherry-Evans will be the kick up the backside he needs. Look at the money he earns, look at the raps he gets. It’s hard to change when you’re earning a stack of money and people are saying how good you are.

Now we’ve got Scott Fulton heading to the Wests Tigers as part of their recruitment team.

That’s resulted in speculation the Tigers are going to try to raid Manly for talent.

I think that’s probably a stretch, to be honest. It might happen, but the reality is it’s up to the players if they want to go. 

I had opportunities to go elsewhere during my career, but the reality was I never wanted to leave Cronulla.

I was happy to sign for less at the Sharks than I could have earned elsewhere.

I don’t think this is going to lead to an exodus of Manly players heading to the Wests Tigers, but Fulton’s appointment may make certain doors easier to open than others.

If he does go after some of the Manly players, you’d look past the obvious names like Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic. DCE is 34 and very much at the back end of his career, Trbojevic is probably never going to leave Manly and there’d have to be questions marks over him anyway, because you’d need to pay a stack to get him to the club and his fitness remains a concern.

For me, guys like Haumole Olakau’atu and Reuben Garrick would probably be my first choices, solid players who would really add something to the Tigers week-in, week-out.

The reality, however, is it’s going to come down to the preference of the individual player, and the fact that Scott Fulton is going to the Tigers is only going to make a marginal difference.

If I think back two weeks, after that Melbourne game in round seven I remember saying to Shane Flanagan that if Manly could play like that every week, there wouldn’t be too many teams that could beat them. The way they played, their line speed, their attitude, their defence, it was everything you need to win a competition.

Melbourne are a tough side, and Manly beat them up. I think the title race is wide open this year, but Manly would be favourites if they played like they did against the Storm.

The trouble is, ever since that night they’ve done nothing. They can obviously do it, but can they do it every week? The last couple of weeks they’ve barely fired a shot. After the win over Melbourne it seemed like the only question against the Tigers would be the margin of victory, but they only just fell over the line, and now they’ve lost to the Titans, who are not a side I would consider a tough or gritty team that could go with Manly at their best.

Their defence is clearly a problem. They leak points. Even when they beat Parramatta earlier in the year, it was 34-30. They drew 32-all with Newcastle, and Penrith put 44 on them in round six.

It’s been very disappointing and now they play Brisbane and the Sharks the next two weeks, the teams that are running first and second.

They’ve got to look at that as an opportunity, not a problem. If they play like they did against Melbourne they’ll be right in those matches.

It’s two weeks that could almost define their season.

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