Following a sustained period of dominance in which the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles made the finals every year for a decade since 2006, the silvertails have endured a prolonged lull only making the finals once in the past four seasons.
While on the whole, the past four seasons have been painful for the Brookvale faithful, seeing many favourite sons walk out the door, this changing of the guard was typified in 2015 in which they lost club legends Anthony Watmough, Glenn Stewart, Kieran Foran, and eventually coach Geoff Toovey.
While the release of such players has allowed the Sea Eagles to rebuild their squad to be much more competitive, this change in trajectory, as well as the consistent squad that came prior, has resulted in more than a few future stars walking out the door.
Here are the top 10 players the Sea Eagles have let go, not re-signed or released since 2010.
The players have been listed in accordance with the contribution they made whilst at the Sea Eagles as well as considering the influence they have had at the clubs they have left for.
1. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves
Following an impressive junior rugby union career in Queensland before being signed to the Waratahs Academy in Sydney, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was signed by then Manly recruitment manager Noel โCrusherโ Cleal to play in the Sea Eagles NYC team.
After consistently impressing for the Sea Eagles under 20s, JWH was handed his NRL debut in round 9 of the 2009 season and would go onto make six NRL appearances for the season. This combined with impressive performances in the NYC would see him named in the Toyota Cup under 20s team of the year.
With a logjam of quality middle forwards in front of him at Brookvale including Glenn Stewart, Jason King, George Rose, Brent Kite, and Josh Perry, Waerea-Hargreaves did not see a path for himself to play consistent first-grade on the Peninsula, and as a result signed a three-year contract with the Sydney Roosters beginning in the 2010 season.
Since then JWH has forged himself into chookies folklore, currently, their third longest serving player behind fellow veterans Mitch Aubusson and Jake Friend, Waerea-Hargreaves has picked up numerous individual and team accolades throughout his 10-year stay in Bondi. Including two Clubman of the Year awards, a Jack Gibson Medal, Premierships in 2013 and 2018, as well as a Four Nations series win in 2010 to go along with his 28 Kiwis caps.
With the twice caped NRL All Star racking up his 200th Roosters game in early 2019, he has cemented himself as one of the true squad veterans and has matured into a fine leader following a rocky start to his career in relation to his disciplinary record.
Even though he just turned 30, JWH is ageing like a fine wine and had arguably his finest season to date in 2018, winning his second premiership and his first NZRL Player of the Year Award.
At best manlys only let go of average or aging players apart from Gutho perhaps
For mine it was Glenn Stewart…his departure started a sequence of events that drove a stake through the heart of Manly. It’s hard to overlook the significance of this impact on the club.
That only brought forward the inevitable of an aging roster