Manly Sea Eagles 2012 Season Preview

What does the 2012 season hold for the Sea Eagles? Will the Sea Eagles defend their premiership?

THE DRUM - By Dave Keogh

Thank God all the off-field crap is now behind us and we can get back to watching the defending Premiers play footy again!

Seems weird to be talking like that after such an amazing 2011 season, but as has been well documented, we fans didn’t really have the opportunity to celebrate the Sea Eagles’ brilliant Grand Final win last October. That victory has now been filed away among our other seven premierships (8 in all now!) and it’s time to start paving the way for more to come.

So what does 2012 hold for the Sea Eagles? Well if our first trial match against the Sharks was anything to go by, ‘the new era’ at Brookie may take a little longer to usher in than we’d hoped.

Early days of course, but Geoff Toovey couldn’t have been handed a tougher introduction to first grade coaching if he’d requested it!

First the departure of Des Hasler, Crusher Cleal et al had a de-stabilising effect on the club. Then it seems someone has it in for club stalwart Peter ‘Zorba’ Peters who’s again attracting unwanted media coverage, caught up in a new storm-in-a-tea-cup tagged ‘Fridgegate’… then there’s the financial situation of Sea Eagles part-owner, Quantum Energy, also attracting unwanted press.

On top of all that, Tooves has to take the team to the other side of the world for two weeks to play the World Club Challenge against Leeds, then fly back to play a replay of the 2011 Grand Final against the Warriors… in New Zealand. And after all that international travel, we then spend another four straight weeks on the road, due to the renovation of the Jane Try stand at Brookie. So it’s not until the Round Six clash with the Panthers that we get a home game!

Even given our strong squad of players, if Tooves still has the team in the top 8 after that start to 2012, it will be his first great coaching achievement.

In the trial against Cronulla, we fielded a host of talent from both the full-time and NSW Cup squads including Darcy Lussick, Tim Robinson, James Cunningham, Dean Whare and new signings/trialists Nick Skinner, Tim Wynn, Dom Nasso, Ben Falcone and Faleula Finau. Other youngsters were responsible for our only try of the night… quick hands by Gary Riccardi put a flying Mitch Jowett over and the conversion was kicked by Scott Blanch.

The youngsters played the first half, but in the second stanza, 10 members of the 2011 Grand Final winning team took to the field. Somewhat alarmingly, we didn’t score a point during this 40 minutes of play…early days.

The 2012 Squad is largely unchanged from last season, except of course that we’re missing two outstanding wingers in Will Hopoate and Michael Robertson. Shane Rodney is joining Robbo at the London Broncos, Terence Seu Seu has been released and Matt Cross has retired.

The good news is that we welcome back Ben Farrar who played so well for us a few years back covering for Brett Stewart’s time out with serious injury. And we’re hoping that Liam Roach (son of Steve) is a chip off the old Blocker when he makes his debut for the Sea Eagles. We’ve also added tall Tongan, Lorenzo Ma'afu (from the Bulldogs).

We may not have added any big names to the line-up, but then we’re already flush with stars from the well established Stewart brothers, Jamie Lyon, Matt Ballin, Anthony Watmough and Steve Matai, to those still building outstanding reputations like Kieran Foran, Daly Cherry-Evans, Jamie Buhrer, Tony Williams and Vic Mauro.

Watch for Kieran’s brother Liam to make a concerted bid for top team selection this year too… and of course we get The Wolfman, David Williams, back from that serious injury he suffered against Melbourne last year.

Other reasons we’re sure to still be a force in 2012 include:

This is an incredibly tight outfit that has already achieved a great deal… and now they have a point to prove - that they can continue their success under new coach, Geoff Toovey.
Tooves is a Manly legend and learned a great deal in his time under Des Hasler… this is his chance to shine and if you saw him play, you know that Tooves always takes the chances that present themselves.
Our halves combination, young though it may be, is definitely among the best in the game. Rookie of the Year in 2011, Daly Cherry-Evans has now had a taste of rep. football and is bound to get better and better. And five-eighth Foran is a dead set legend in the making.
We have some exciting young forwards about to make their mark big time in Jamie Buhrer, Tony Williams and Darcy Lussick.

Daly Cherry-Evans… now an international.

Surrounded by the experience, skill and toughness of Glenn Stewart, Matt Balin and ‘Choc’ Whatmough, these guys are bound to improve even further.
And we have two great co-captains in Jamie Lyon and Jason King who will continue to lead by example and ease the transition of coaches.

Will the Sea Eagles defend their premiership? I don’t know… but I do know they’ll give it a red hot go and provide many more spectacular moments for Manly fans to cheer throughout the year.

GO MANLY!!!

To read Dave Keogh’s blog, go to: http://doubledrummer.wordpress.com

Dave Keogh

Our Manly columnist Dave Keogh has been a professional writer for some 30 years, contributing to publications as broad as Modern Fishing and Outdoor. He honed a passion writing a regular column – Talking Tennis – for The Manly Daily. With a varied history including work as a music industry publicist, theatrical agent, band manager, poet, editor and tennis coach, he found his niche in advertising, and with loads of awards under his belt, Dave went into business on his own and now runs several very successful businesses, including an online community connecting sport-loving people – http://www.doubledrummer.com/ Most importantly, Dave loves sport, and is an avid supporter of The Manly Sea Eagles…