Easier than chasing pigs? Hardly, says Lyon and teammates

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Taking it on the chin … Manly's Jamie Lyon and Matt Orford share a lighter moment at training yesterday in the lead-up to the Sea Eagles' clash with the Warriors.
Photo: Craig Golding

Easier than chasing pigs? Hardly, says Lyon and teammates

Jessica Halloran | September 25, 2008

PIGS, kava, auras and endless goodbyes; topics that surfaced prior to Manly training yesterday.
It was pretty hard to get past the topic of pigs when Jamie Lyon wandered onto a corner of the field.

"Easier than chasing pigs?" asked a reporter as Lyon had five microphones shoved in front of his face.

"Haven't been for a while," Lyon said. "I might have forgotten about how to do it. I'll have to get back into it."

Lyon, who infamously once chose pig shooting over footy, was later asked by another reporter late to the press pack about the pigs: "Been pig shooting?"

"Not around here," Lyon politely replied.

When the cameras rolled, the talk switched from pigs and guns to football and the Warriors. "They look pretty dangerous," Lyon said.

Indeed they do. After finishing eighth, the Warriors have surprised many. There was their stunning upset of the Storm, in Melbourne and last weekend they took care of the Sydney Roosters. Now for Manly.

One man that has been barracking for the Warriors is Manly's Steve Matai. With some of his best friends in the team Matai revealed he'd been whooping it up in front the TV when they've been winning.

"Just seeing them on the field, I think I don't want to hurt them. But this week I'm going to have play hard," Matai said.

"I got a lot of friends on the team but I'm sure they'll be running straight at me."

But one of the hardest men Manly will come up against is Ruben Wiki, the kava devotee, who Matai has sipped plenty of bowls with in the past.

"He made me drink it … it's just relaxing," Matai said.

However he is not warming to the idea of the 104-kilogram Warrior heading his way. "Not really," Matai said. "Seeing the sight of Rubes running like that. He had a good one against Sia Soliola on the weekend. I think Sia knows how it feels."

Matai says it's Wiki's leadership and the Warriors journey to now that has them firing.

"They have a great aura about them," Matai said. "To come from where they had, in eighth position, it's given them a lot of self-belief. They think they can go all the way.

"We've got a lot of self-belief in our side, but we are up for a tough one on Saturday night … Rubes is a great leader, he always gets the guys going."

But Wiki's NRL career, or that of a fellow veteran, Manly's Steve Menzies, will end with a defeat on Saturday night with a defeat, one week earlier than either would prefer.

"It will be sad that one of us has to end [their football career]," Menzies said.

Yesterday there were jokes about Menzies playing at the age of 44 and then there was this question: "Ah, mate, you've had about a hundred farewells, are you tired of them yet?"

"Nah," Menzies said. "It's always nice for people to hang around and give you a bit of a clap. In a couple of weeks there won't be anymore."