By MARK CASHMAN

Northern Suburbs coach Zak Beer says there are two aspects of his return to Manly Oval On Saturday for the Shoremen’s Shute Shield clash with Manly.

On the one hand there is the business as usual aspect of the fixture.

“Yeah there’s been our normal review, team selection, training and going through hours of vision to try and nut out what Manly will bring to the table,” Beer told Rugby News.

Then there’s the emotional side of the equation that invariably comes up when a player or coach revisits an old stamping ground.

“I spent a lot of my life there (at Manly) playing and coaching so it’s a ground that has a lot of familiarity for me – a lot of great memories,” he added.

“It’s a great ground to play at and I’m looking forward to everything that the day will bring and seeing a lot of friends and family again.

“Norths is my home now. They have been so welcoming and have given me a great opportunity to coach at Shute Shield level and for that I will always be thankful.”

There have though been some awkward times in the Beer family over the past 18 months with Uncle Brian, Marlins legend and life member ‘Bubbles’, a great supporter of Zak’s.

“I’ve tried to get him to wear some Norths kit but he just won’t go near it,” Beer said.

“I even sent him a pair of Norths Budgie Smugglers so he could wear them underneath his jeans on Saturday but from what I understand they are still in the packet and likely to stay there.”

At a pinch you could call Beer a Norths junior not living far from Primrose Park and attending Neutral Bay Public School and the Marist Brothers College opposite North Sydney Oval.

“Most afternoons I would head down to Primrose Park (Norths training grounds) and have a kick around until it got dark with my brother,” Beers added.

The Shoremen are seven from seven so far this year and have been one of the better attacking sides in the first seven rounds of the Shute Shield competition.

For the second game in as many weeks the Shoremen will be without their major playmaker in Angus Sinclair.

Max Burey moved up from fullback to fill thew No.10 jersey and Beer sees many things that he liked about the way that the younger Burey went about his work at flyhalf.

“I thought Max managed the game quite well,” Beer said in reference to the game against the Two Blues last Saturday.

“What has worked well for us has been focusing on what we need to do and the wider squad has really stepped up and shown some real clarity about what needs to be done.

“Manly are a hard side to read and in some way they are similar to West Harbour in that they have great weapons in attack and can strike from just about anywhere on the field.

“The results haven’t been going their way so far this year but they are a proud club used to being in contention and that makes them dangerous.”

Manly coach Matt McGoldrick has kept BJ Hartmann in the No.10 and Dennis Pili-Gaitau will agains be riding shotgun at inside centre.

Souths pretty much blew the Marlins out of the water last weekend at Forshaw Rugby Park putting three tries on the visitor’s before they knew what was going on.

The Marlins did work their way back into the contest but needed far too much to go their way in the final 50 minutes to have any real chance of getting the points.

Pili-Gaitau has been one of McGoldrick’s faithful servants this year, adapting his game to the demands of the No.12 channel and more of a distributing role.

“It’s a credit to the Dennis that he has been able to do that,” McGoldrick said.  

Manly’s defence will be tested by the Norths running game and it is this area that the Marlins will have to be spot on.

Otherwise this game and the rest of the season will slip away from them.

IMAGE: SUPPLIED