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.
8. Peta Hiku
Born in Gisborne, New Zealand, Peta Hiku made a reputation for himself as a player of promise during his time with the New Zealand Warriorsโ NYC team. In 2012 Hiku gained the second most metres in the NYC competition and went onto be named New Zealand Warriors under-20s player of the year.
These impressive performances caught the eye of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, with Hiku going onto sign a short-term deal with the Sea Eagles commencing in the 2013 season.
After starting the year in the NSW Cup, Hiku was handed his NRL debut in round 6 thanks to consistent injuries to the Sea Eagles outside back stocks including Brett Stewart, David Williams, and Cheyse Blair. After scoring a try on debut Hiku would continue to impress throughout the rest of the season, featuring in a further 13 matches and scoring three tries. This included an impressive man of the match performance in the Sea Eagles 4-0 loss to the Roosters in the finalโs series, with Hiku running for an astounding 297 metres. He later backed up that performance with a similarly impressive 231 running metres in the following weekโs semi-final victory over the Sharks.
Having impressed over the back half of 2013, Hiku began the year as one of the Sea Eagles first choices in the outside backs. Showing no semblance of second-year syndrome, Hikuโs good form would continue, resulting in selection at fullback for the New Zealand Kiwiโs in their 30-18 loss to Australia in the ANZAC Test.
Hiku would go onto feature 61 times for the Sea Eagles, netting 28 tries before being told by incoming coach Trent Barrett that he was free to look for a new club. With two years remaining on his contract and having just proven himself on the Kiwis tour of Great Britain, Hiku had no shortage of suitors, going onto sign a three-year deal with the Penrith Panthers.
Although Hikuโs stint at the Panthers only lasted a season and a half and was littered with consistent injury woes, he has since joined his junior club the New Zealand Warriors after a brief stint in the North of England with the Warrington Wolves.
Since re-joining the Warriors Hiku has only missed two games and has featured predominantly at centre, however, Hikuโs versatility has been a great asset for the Warriors, with the Kiwis representative being utilised in the halves and fullback when required.
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