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.
2. Clinton Gutherson
A Manly Warringah junior having played his junior football with the Cromer Kingfishers, Clint Gutherson was widely renowned as the heir to Brett Stewartโs throne at Brookvale after a glittering junior career. While he had suffered a setback in 2015, rupturing his ACL in round 1, the Sea Eagles showed faith in the local junior by re-signing him to a new two-year deal. However, less than five months later he was inexplicably released from the remainder of his contract to sign a two-year deal with the Parramatta Eels commencing in 2016.
The Sea Eagles would almost immediately rue this decision with Gutherson displaying extremely impressive early season form at fullback and wing. Enough so to catch the eyes of the NSW City selectors, who picked Gutherson at fullback in Cityโs 44-30 win over NSW Country. Following an impressive first season in which Gutherson played 24 games, scored 5 tries and laid on 8 assists, the Eels up-graded and extended Guthersonโs contract for a further three seasons.
In the following three seasons Gutherson went onto cement himself as a fan favourite and the spiritual leader of the Eels, being dubbed โKing Guthoโ by the blue and gold faithful. Initially changing between Fullback and five-eighth, Gutherson has cemented himself as a top class NRL fullback, possessing an incredible fitness base, as well as all the ball playing, tackling and ball-running abilities required of a modern fullback.
While his individual performances have often garnered praise, resulting in being selected in the NSW State of Origin squad for Game III, it is his leadership abilities and cultural influence that are gaining increasing notoriety. Having been anointed as one of the Eels co-captains in 2018, Gutherson has taken to the role like a duck to water, driving the high-performance habits of his fellow squad members by exchanging picture messages of meals with teammates in order to keep each other accountable.
While Manly is not lacking in the fullback department with superstar Tom Trbojevic in their ranks, Gutherson has displayed himself to be more than capable at five-eighth and would form a potentially lethal combination with Manlyโs go to man DCE, and simultaneously take some of the playmaking pressure and the onus of their $10 million man.
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