West Harbour win far more often than they lose when Henry Seavula is playing. Photo: spaimages.com.au

by Brendan Bradford –

Manly vs West Harbour:

While the Marlins wrapped up the Minor Premiership last weekend and are looking for momentum heading into the finals, West Harbour saw their top-six chances slip away with a loss to Penrith at the foot of the mountains.

Manly’s 66-19 thrashing of Norths gave them an unassailable six point lead in first place while the Pirates’ two-point defeat to the Emus and Randwick’s win over Warringah means West Harbour need to beat the Marlins and hope the Galloping Greens lose to Norths this Saturday.

“Penrith played really well and they were fantastic, so full credit to them,” said West Harbour coach, Matt Briggs.

“They just outgunned us a little bit and mathematically we’re still a chance, so nothing changes there. If Norths pull off an upset and we do much the same against Manly, we can get through, but we can’t control anyone else. What we can control is how we bounce back and perform.”

Unless the unlikely happens, it could be the last time some of this West Harbour side plays together.

“I just told the guys that with some of them looking for overseas contracts or whatever, that it could be the last time we get out there together, so let’s make sure we put our hand up and have a red hot go,” said Briggs.

“Manly are obviously beatable, we’ve seen that. And while they’ve got the Minor Premiership which is well deserved, I think if we play to our potential we’re a good chance, but it all comes down to whether we can do that. We’ll go out in a blaze of glory hopefully.”

For Manly coach Phil Blake, the final rounds of the regular season are about making small adjustments and gaining some momentum heading into the finals.

“We just need to keep refining the small details and getting better each week,” he said.

“This is the last round game before the finals so you want to go in with some momentum and have certain parts of your game up to scratch, so that’s what we’re working on all week. The signs were good last week and we’re hoping they’ll be even better this week.”

Manly have only lost two matches this year – to Easts and Warringah – but will be wary of a West Harbour side with nothing to lose.

“They’ll be hurting from last week because they missed a golden opportunity to stake a claim,” said Blake.

“They can still get there provided Norths can beat Randwick, but it’s the old cliché that we’re not going to be too focused on what West Harbour are going to offer because they haven’t changed their style in five or six years and it’s all or nothing. We know what to expect and we just need to stop it.”

Manly v West Harbour at Manly Oval 3:00pm

Manly: 1. Eddie Aholelei, 2. Dave Porecki, 3. Mitch Lewis, 4. Greg Peterson, 5. Ed Gower, 6. Harry Bergelin, 7. Kotoni Ale, 8. Daniel Alley, 9. Mark Swanepoel, 10. Sam Vaevae, 11. Dane Chisholm, 12. Kasye Greer, 13. Brian Sefanaia, 14. Alex Northam, 15. BJ Hartmann.

West Harbour: 1. Dave Lolohea, 2. Ryan Dalziel, 3. Michael Ala’alatoa, 4. Chris Simons, 5. Harrison Orr, 6. Bradford Kapa, 7. Cohen Masson, 8. Matt Coles, 9. Rob Cattanach, 10. Dave Harvey, 11. Tito Mua, 12. Henry Seavula, 13. Rory Sidey, 14. Usaia O’Sullivan, 15. Joel Brooks.

Referee: Ian Smith