By MARK CASHMAN

You always like to have options at this time of the season and Northern Suburbs showed they they have a few after their 36-18 Shute Shield win over Manly on Saturday.

For the second time in as many weeks the Shoremen went into a game without their experienced playmaker Angus Sinclair into the Round Eight fixture at Manly Oval and once again Max Burey stepped up and underlined his class.

The Shoremen were also missing Waratahs James Turner, Jack Whetton and Hugh Sinclair but the likes of Harry Cudmore and Seb Cameron also showed that they are of this class.

But Burey was something special and coach Zak Beer likened his style to that of the Crusaders and All Black No.10 Richie Mo’unga.

“I think he’s in that (Richie Mo’unga) mould in that he’s a ball runner and can ball play deep in the defensive line,” Beer told Rugby News.

“He’s like a rugby league halfback like Daly Cherry-Evans or Mitchell Pearce in that he can go to the line with a couple of runners and just make things happen.

“Max had his hands on the strings of that game right throughout the 80 minutes. He’s really working on it and studying tape of the way that he goes about the role at No.10.

“He’s critical of himself and I think his time at flyhalf will do wonders for his game at fullback when ‘Gus’ (Angus Sinclair) is back.

“I think he puts Jack Brewer our loose head prop through four holes and there aren’t many in the Shute Shield that can play like that.”

Burey first came to Sydney to play rugby league for the Wests Tigers and he joined brothers Harry and Jack at Norths at the start of last season and has made a huge impact.

Probably the best way to sum up the Norths performance was relentless and the try to Nick Duffy showed just that.

The bell had gone at the Village Green and the Shoremen could have just kicked it out and got on with their preparations for the game against Eastern Suburbs at Woollahra Oval.

But they continued to play and continued to offload, run good support lines and were rewarded.

Hooker James Margan was another one to stand out with his running game outstanding and metres after contact right up there with the best.

Norths jumped out to a 22-3 lead thanks to tries to Cameron, Brad Hemopo and Charlie Jeavons-Fellows and were monopolising much of the possession.

The Marlins did kick back into the contest late in the first half and they were able to force a yellow card to Norths Declan Carroll and the teams went to the break 22-6 behind.

They made the most of the extra man after the break and were able to peg back the lead with a try to Hunter Ward after some nice work from BJ Hartmann.

Burey then out his head up and scored a nice try that involved some good support work and effective off loading and that was pretty much game over and bonus point in the bank.

Manly coach Matt McGoldrick said lack of possession killed his team’s aspirations early in the contest.

“We didn’t get a lot of ball in that first half and just let Norths get away from us a bit,” McGoldrick said.

“Last year we would have struggled to score points in that game so that was something positive to take away.

“Unforced errors killed us off at different times and it must be said that Norths defended well.

“I thought BJ Hartmann defended well and got us into the right spots on the field while Connor Davidson was robust at scrumtime.”

Another positive for the Marlins was the return of Sam Lane who had 20 minutes at the end of the game and although a little bit rusty showed some promise for the coming weeks that include the Battle of the Beaches next Saturday.

Warringah next week will be an entirely different challenge and that one isn’t going to be about finesse.

IMAGE: MANLY MARLINS