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.
4. Blake Green
Another player who could stake a claim as being one of the most underrated in the competition, Blake Green has had a strange path to the top of rugby league. After playing for three different clubs over four years only managing 33 games in that time, Green jetted to the other side of the world to play regular football in the English Super League.
That decision would prove to be an inspired one, playing 89 games across four seasons with Hull KR and the Wigan Warriors. In that time Green would win the 2013 Super League Title as well as winning the Harry Sunderland Trophy for the man of the match in the 2013 Grand Final with the Warriors.
His consistent workmanlike performances in Englandโs North caught the eye of Craig Bellamy and the Storm who were in need of a replacement for Dragons bound Gareth Widdop, an organisation renowned for finding diamonds in the rough. Green would go onto sign a two-year deal with the Victorian club, slotting in at five-eighth and proving to be the perfect foil for Cooper Cronk. Greenโs astute game management in conjunction with Cronk would help the Storm to a minor premiership and a Grand Final in his two-year stint in Melbourne, more than displaying how well he had honed in his skills during his four-year spell in the Super League.
These impressive performances for the Storm forced the Sea Eagles to stand up and take notice, who were desperately in need of a halves partner for Daly Cherry-Evans who could bare more of the responsibility of directing and managing the Sea Eagles, giving DCE a freer roaming role.
The Sea Eagles would eventually get their man, tying Green down to a two-year contract. This would once again prove to be an inspired choice, with Greenโs superior game management leading the Sea Eagles to an unlikely sixth-place finish in his first season on the Peninsula.
While the proof was in the pudding in terms of the team finish on the ladder, Greenโs signing did exactly what the Manly hierarchy hoped in relation to their skipper DCE. Green, being able to carry most of the load of the game management and team direction allowed DCE to pick and choose when to insert himself into the teams attack to great effect, registering 19 try assists and six tries for the season, the most since his outstanding rookie season in 2011. With this impressive output resulting in Cherry-Evans being named Manlyโs Player of the Year as well as regaining his spot in the Queensland State of Origin side after previously being exiled.
Somewhat bewilderingly, the Sea Eagles would release Green from the final year of his contract to take up a lucrative long-term offer with the Warriors, signing the unproven and injury prone Lachlan Croker as his replacement in the halves.
This decision would prove to be calamitous, with Croker injuring his ACL in round 8 and missing the remainder of the season, with the Sea Eagles finishing the following season in 15th place with 17 losses. Whereas over the ditch Green would lead the Warriors to their first finals appearance since 2011.
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