Miracle at Manly: Gerrard labels Rats’ remarkable comeback his most memorable local derby win
By Matt Findlay; Photo - Karen Watson
Warringah’s astonishing come-from-behind victory in Saturday’s Battle of the Beaches at Manly Oval begs the obvious question - what in the world did Rats coach Mark Gerrard say to his troops at half-time to inspire such a remarkable second-half revival?
As it turns out, not much really.
“Everyone’s asked me that but I don’t really know what to put it down to. It was simple for me at half-time, we’d had no footy and we weren’t getting out of our own areas right,” Gerrard said, his side was trailing 22-3 after Manly put on a 40-minute clinic in the opening period.
“Knowing we had trust in being able to score points, we were confident if we could fix those two things areas up we weren’t out of it, regardless of what the scoreline said.”
Admittedly, he did have the thought it might not be his side’s day after Nick Holton extended Manly’s lead to 22 with a penalty goal just minutes into the new half.
“I did