COLIN CAIRD SHIELD WINNERS: Manly

by Paul Cook –

Manly’s 2nd Grade have given their loyal followers some consolation for missing out on a Shute Shield Premiership with a comprehensive 34-13 dispatching of Sydney University at Concord Oval.

A tight, tense 1st half ended with both sides locked at 6-6 after defences ruled supreme. But a subtle tactical shift from the Manly coaching think tank saw Shaun Treweek move into flyhalf and the change opened the door for the weapons in Manly’s backline to shine through. Four second-half tries took the game away from a Uni side that could have no complaints at the final whistle.

Manly head coach Dan Brown felt that the experience in his side contributed to their second half demolition of the Students. “After that first half where we really didn’t have the ball, I was pretty happy to be six-all at half-time to be honest,” he told Rugby News. “The message at the break was ‘If we get enough ball, we’ll win the game’ because I backed our forwards and the backs that we had, have a lot of first grade experience and I thought that would pay dividends in the end and it did.”

Champions: Manly captain Ryan Melrose
hoists aloft the Colin Caird Shield
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

His skipper, Ryan Melrose, was pleased that the Marlins were able to showcase their abilities to the full after the break. “When you focus on how the second half went it was exactly the footy we wanted to play from the start, it just took us forty minutes to get there,” he said. “We definitely turned it on, I’m very happy about the way we played, our attacking kicking game was great and our defensive line really kept them in their half and you can’t really play out of your own half in finals footy so I’m very happy with the boys.”

Keeping it in the family, Melrose’s cousin, Benn, was captain of the defeated Students. A victor at the same stage last year, he paid tribute to a worthy Manly side on the day. “They’re a tremendous outfit and they’ve been a force in this competition all year. As a club they led the Club Championship for a long time and it showed today with the depth of player they had on the field. But we had opportunities, we had many chances in the first half to convert what was a lot of pressure we were putting on them but we couldn’t put that into points and that probably cost us in the end.”

Manly’s side on paper, had the look of a team that meant business and it was they who opened the scoring, Marshall Milroy slotting a 2nd minute penalty.

Uni hit back with a Byron Hodge penalty after eight minutes, the goal kicking lock succeeding with his second attempt having pushed one just wide a few minutes earlier as the Students began to dictate matters. But the Marlins slowly worked their way into the game, their continuity and handling improving with every minute and another Milroy penalty edged them ahead towards the end of the first quarter.

Manly looked good with ball in hand but were often forced to run from deep or kick under pressure by an advancing Uni line and it was the Students who ended the half on top, at least in terms of momentum. Probing for a weakness in the Manly ranks, they went close with a spilt ball in contact in one corner and a Stu Dunbar knock-on with the line in sight in the other before contenting themselves with another 3pts courtesy of Hodge.

A tactical shift saw fullback Shaun Treweek move into the no.10 role in place of Milroy after the break. Returning to his old stomping ground at Concord, the former Pirate’s running game and positional kicks soon gave Uni plenty to think about and with spaces opening up, Manly constructed the first five pointer of the afternoon.

Game Changer: Shaun Treweek (seen here tracking Uni’s James McMahon) was a
pivotal figure in Manly’s second half surge – Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

A nicely worked move down the left flank gave Richard Hooper the space to exploit his pace and he drew the last man in exemplary fashion before putting Chris Yarrington over with a dive. Treweek converted and the Marlins led 13-6.

A few minutes later, they repeated the trick, isolating Uni fullback Stu Dunbar in his own 22, forcing the turnover after throwing in bodies and shifting wide for Yarrington to dive home again.

The quickfire double visibly rocked the Students back on their heels and having lost to the Marlins 45-20 in their only meeting during the regular season, they would have been wary of a similar touch-up in the offing.

They regrouped but when they found themselves within range, they encountered a Manly defence buoyed by their newfound advantage and charged with the job of protecting it.

The Students huffed and puffed but found it difficult to spark anything where it mattered – inside the Marlins’ red zone – and with captain Ryan Melrose marshalling his troops and Dylan Sigg hitting anything in blue and gold stripes that moved – and hard – the chances of a comeback grew less likely with every minute.

The Marlins sealed the win through a terrific play with 10 minutes remaining. The piggies did the hard yards, pick and driving their way within inches of the line and with defenders sucked in, Manly’s princesses spread it infield for replacement Jacob Woodhouse to delay his pass to perfection and put a speeding BJ Hartmann through to the chalk.

Sealing Victory: BJ Hartmann slides home for the Marlin’s 3rd try of the match
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

Treweek’s conversion made it 27-6 but Uni kept them interested with five to go, James McMahon pouncing like a thief in the night to emerge from a melee on halfway and race under the posts but the Marlins weren’t done yet, running in try no.4 from halfway when a host of Marlins broke through before a deft kick in behind was grubbered ahead, scooped up and finished of by a gleeful Kasye Greer.

While it wasn’t quite up there with the intricacies of the Da Vinci Code, coach Dan Brown’s decision to move Treweek closer to the action certainly solved a puzzle in terms of his side’s attacking threat. “It’s something we’d talked about during the week,” he revealed. “Marshall Milroy did a really good job for us in that first half, did what I asked of him and then we just looked for something a little bit different.

“Shaun got in amongst it, he was back on a ground he knows well and his kicking in that second half, turning Uni around and allowing us to use our big lineout put them under a lot of pressure and we got a bit of pay from that.”

Having watched their 1st Grade side go out at the semi-finals stage after finishing as Minor Premiers, Brown felt that this achievement by 2’s took on extra significance. “I think it’s very important for us as a club. We’ve had a great year, we got all grades in the finals and two colts teams into grand finals and we’re still a bit upset about first grade going out last week so we needed something. The boys knew that today, they knew we had to come away with something and I’m really proud of them.”

Cue wild celebrations at the Steyne…

Manly 34 (Chris Yarrington 2, BJ Hartmann, Kasye Greer, tries; Marshall Milroy 2 pens, Shaun Treweek 4 cons) defeated Sydney University 13 (James  McMahon try; Byron Hodge 2 pens, Jock Merriman con)