Eagle eye
Manly’s pursuit of Peter O’Sullivan to be their recruitment manager was glossed over as the club tried to deal with the Jackson Hastings-Daly Cherry-Evans drama. To anyone outside the club, it was a bid to support coach Trent Barrett. To those inside the club, it was seen as a direct crack at Eagles royalty, the Fulton family.
In the past few years, Manly’s juniors have gone from being an absolute basket case to among the best. But it has come at a cost. The tactic of dragging players into their system has locals seething.
The upside is they boast some of the most exciting talent in NSW in the 16-18 years age bracket.
The club last year won its first under-20s (Holden Cup) title and made the grand final of the Harold Matthews Cup (under-16s) competition.
This month, the Sea Eagles won their first Harold Matthews Cup grand final, 26-18 over Parramatta. So it would seem strange that the Sea Eagles are openly shopping around for a talent scout.
The club openly made a bid of about $180,000 for recruitment gun O’Sullivan, who has joined the New Zealand Warriors after they seemingly topped the Manly offer.
It’s a real slap in the face for current scout Scott Fulton who, like his old man, Bozo, obviously has a real eye for picking players. Scott has done his job with NRL players as well as juniors, bringing Addin Fonua-Blake, Akuila Uate, Taniela Paseka, Tom Wright, Jack Gosiewski, Toafofoa Sipley and Moses Suli to the club.
There are cries from the local junior league that the northern beaches boys aren’t getting a look-in.
Like the Roosters on the other side of the harbour, Manly simply don’t have the numbers to compete so they have gone outside their area to bring in some talent to bolster what class locals they have.
It has worked a treat and given them some of the best young talent, but it will fall over quickly if Fulton decides to go – which he may do.
The Eagles don’t want to have the Fultons as enemies because they still wield considerable power.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/cordner-rocked-by-gould-criticism-admits-dad-20180526-p4zhqp.html
Manly’s pursuit of Peter O’Sullivan to be their recruitment manager was glossed over as the club tried to deal with the Jackson Hastings-Daly Cherry-Evans drama. To anyone outside the club, it was a bid to support coach Trent Barrett. To those inside the club, it was seen as a direct crack at Eagles royalty, the Fulton family.
In the past few years, Manly’s juniors have gone from being an absolute basket case to among the best. But it has come at a cost. The tactic of dragging players into their system has locals seething.
The upside is they boast some of the most exciting talent in NSW in the 16-18 years age bracket.
The club last year won its first under-20s (Holden Cup) title and made the grand final of the Harold Matthews Cup (under-16s) competition.
This month, the Sea Eagles won their first Harold Matthews Cup grand final, 26-18 over Parramatta. So it would seem strange that the Sea Eagles are openly shopping around for a talent scout.
The club openly made a bid of about $180,000 for recruitment gun O’Sullivan, who has joined the New Zealand Warriors after they seemingly topped the Manly offer.
It’s a real slap in the face for current scout Scott Fulton who, like his old man, Bozo, obviously has a real eye for picking players. Scott has done his job with NRL players as well as juniors, bringing Addin Fonua-Blake, Akuila Uate, Taniela Paseka, Tom Wright, Jack Gosiewski, Toafofoa Sipley and Moses Suli to the club.
There are cries from the local junior league that the northern beaches boys aren’t getting a look-in.
Like the Roosters on the other side of the harbour, Manly simply don’t have the numbers to compete so they have gone outside their area to bring in some talent to bolster what class locals they have.
It has worked a treat and given them some of the best young talent, but it will fall over quickly if Fulton decides to go – which he may do.
The Eagles don’t want to have the Fultons as enemies because they still wield considerable power.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/cordner-rocked-by-gould-criticism-admits-dad-20180526-p4zhqp.html