After leading the competition for almost the entire season and claiming the minor premiership, the wheels came off for Manly in the playoffs after being ambushed by Eastwood in the opening 20 minutes of the finals.

Several injuries in that match were too much to overcome for the competition favourites, who lost again a week later to Warringah and missed another opportunity to claim an illusive premiership.

But 2018 presents a new challenge for Billy Melrose’s side and Marlins fans will be hopeful that the addition of some new and returning talent will be enough to bring the Shute Shield trophy back to Manly Oval.

Overview with Brian Melrose:

“Our preseason has been very similar to last year. It’s been a little problematic with a few injuries and a few guys picking up Super Rugby opportunities. It’s been a little disjointed and things have probably taken a little bit longer to come together, but that’s happening now with players returning and getting back on the park. We’re just looking forward to the start now,” Melrose told Rugby News.

“It’s always disappointing when you get yourself in with a chance of winning a premiership and you don’t. There were some things we could control and others that we couldn’t but that’s life. We made a few mistakes in the game against Eastwood and didn’t play our best for 20 minutes and that was enough.

“We obviously got busted up pretty bad with some unfortunate injuries but you can’t control that. We didn’t have the same team that we’d had all year after that and frankly we just weren’t good enough.

“This year, hopefully we can take all those steps again, give ourselves a chance and then see what happens.

“There’s no shortage of motivation and there shouldn’t be but it’s a different team this year. People move on and that’s just the way it goes. Ed Gower had to retire through injury, a few others went on to professional opportunities and some are still recovering from injuries from last year. It’ll be a fresh team this year with a lot of old faces and some new, exciting faces.

“Our trial form has been a little clunky to be fair. We just need more time together and we probably haven’t had as much time together at this point as we would have liked but we’ll get there. Good players know where they need to get to and hopefully it won’t take long for that to happen.

“To be fair, our trial against Parra was really competitive and they were really good. It’s hard to tell too much from trials because you’ve got different guys in and out of the side, but I think we’ve still got a bit of work to do.

“It makes it a little easier being in my second year with this group. We obviously are always looking to evolve the way we play because what did it for you last year, won’t do it for you this year. The Shute Shield competition is getting stronger and stronger every year so we need to continue to get better. Obviously some things stay the same but we still want to evolve.”

2017 result: Minor premiers and preliminary finalists

Ins: Charlie Abel (Canberra), Brad Hemopo (New Zealand), Alex Northam (UK), Robbie Coleman (Brumbies).

Outs: Ed Gower (retirement), Mitch Lewis (sabbatical), Dan Alley (sabbatical), Matt Lucas (Brumbies), Sam Lane (Stormers), Cam Bailey (injury).

Key areas of improvement: 

“The key area for us is to improve our decision making under the height of pressure. I call it resilience in decision making under pressure. You’ve got to train that into people and it comes from repetition.

“I’ve spent seven months listening to people say you must have been this or you must have been that, the answer is that Manly started the season in seventh, we got to first in the minor rounds and then we weren’t able to kick on for the reasons above in the playoffs.

“I don’t think improvement happens in one year. Maybe we were good enough last year, maybe we weren’t. 2018 is a new year and that doesn’t necessarily mean we will automatically make the finals, we’ve just got to keep working and improve on the things we didn’t do well last year.

“Many people try something before they succeed at it. We as a group, have only tried to win it once. I’m not worried about what other groups at Manly have done, they’ve got nothing to do with us. Our group has had one opportunity and we didn’t do a bad job but weren’t good enough to get the chocolates at the end.

“This year, we’ll work on all those little things and see if we can’t make the finals first, and then hopefully learn from the lessons we took out of last year.

You obviously need some good fortune at the same time but I think we’ll probably do things a little differently this year to see if we can get the result that we want.”

Player(s) to watch:

“I hate talking up players because it usually goes to their heads,” Melrose said.

“I think we’ve got a lot of players to look out for. To be fair, a lot of them did pretty well last year so I’m hoping they can repeat those efforts. If they can’t, well then it creates an opportunity for someone else.

“I think Josh Turner is a good young player. He probably improved last year a little bit and I’d like to think he’ll keep going.

“Harry Bergelin will also have a big year. He’s a local junior and he’s now in the prime of his playing years. I’d love to see him win a premiership before too long.”

Hopes and expectations for the year:

“It’d be wrong of us to come into the season and say anything less than that we want to win the comp, but competitions are won a long way from now.

“As I said, for us it’s about taking every step. We’ve got to mentally realise that you don’t just automatically make the finals, you’ve got to do all the hard work again. The competition is getting better so we’ve got to fight and get ourselves into the finals and if we can do that, then it’s pretty clear that we’re a team that wants to win a title.

“I don’t think we need to shy away from that, but you can’t spend your whole year trying to win the comp. You’ve just got to do the things that get you into the finals. Once you’re in the race, then clearly your aspirations have to be to go on and win it.”

Who will Manly play in the grand final? 

“The team that won it last year I guess will be pretty strong again. The team that came second will probably be stronger than they were last year and the team that came third will be pretty angry after getting knocked out of the finals.

“There are also plenty of teams in the middle, sides like West Harbour improved a lot last year and you have to expect them to improve massively again. It’s going to be really competitive.

“Eastwood have a really competitive side again and they’ll be massively strong.

“If you look at each squad, you see Norths are like a holding bay for the Waratahs at the moment and very few of them play for Australia, so a lot of them will be back for the finals.

“Warringah have a fantastic squad and now have the experience of winning it so I’d think you’d be playing one of those teams. Then a side like Eastwood also know how to win.

“It’s hard to say who you will play but you’d have to think those sides will be in the firing line.”