[Resurrected] How good was Matai

[castle eagle]

Nice to see I haven’t missed the mark thinking he’s the GOAT defender out wide!
The up tempo Hits really boosted the side every time. It was like a 4/20 every time he laid someone out

his runs out of dummy half were pretty special too

 

[Cameron]

Loved the bloke.

The one thing about Stevie. You knew if he went down holding his neck or shoulder he was going to have a big game. I used to get concerned if he didn’t go down injured.

I miss not seeing him and the prince runout every week

 

[maxta]

There was an exceptional shot against Eels when Groth Jnr was running through players in a purple patch.
On a kick return he was full steam and I was thinking "please don't break the line" as he was scoring tries and bulldozing players at this time for fun...
Not this day - WHAM - Matai collects him with a screamer and the bloke looked up when he hit the turf like "WTF, thats not meant to happen to me"...
Well it did !!

 

[midsteyne]

Matai was pretty much in a league of his own .....

Not in the same class, but back in the late 60's Manly had a centre named Alec Tennant .... a lot of blokes he crashed into were given the details later by team mates ..

Tennant was in a class of his own

 

[globaleagle]

Skivvy is the player whose highlights I look at the most of all the champion players we have had.

After my 80th jamesons tonight I'll probably do it again and hope that he knows that despite the acrimonious end he had with Manly, he remembers that the fans absolutely adored him.

 

[TimmyQ]

Another vote for Darrell Williams who laid out opposition runners regularly. Was a great, hard defender.

Long time ago but from memory i think Craig Innes was also considered an excellent defender too. But I don't recall him virtually killing people like Matai did lol

 

[Brissie Kid]

The Best of Steve Matai.

 

[Captain Moondog]

Deserves his own book in the Bible just after Revelations (which he was)

 

[Bring back the.... Biff?]

Matai was my favourite player to watch for years. That combo foran snake matai was amazing. He was also a great try scorer and very strong close to the line. I'll never forget the toovey investigation try matai was denied. That was a try fair and square.... the hit on Gurgess was priceless as was the next one on Surgess. We miss you Matai!

 

[Rynostradamus]

Toughest backline player to ever play the game. End of story.