Tony Veitch
Simon Mannering’s 262 matches show he is a real Warrior
Ask most disgruntled and frustrated Warriors fans who their No 1 club legend is and I ’ll bet most would go with the Little General, Stacey Jones.
After all, he is a Golden Boot winner. He ran that team in that remarkable run to the 2002 grand final. He was a match winner.
But as is often the case with the rugby codes, the playmakers tend to steal headlines, good and bad.
They create the magic, whether it be that flick pass from Benji Marshall for the Tigers in the 2005 grand final, or Stacey’s one-man effort to slice through the Roosters in the 2002 decider.
What’s not so easy to gauge or rate is a bloke who never stops tackling, never seems to get injured and, most importantly, is rock solid week in, week out, for a club that is anything but.
Tonight, Simon Mannering breaks the record for most Warriors appearances with his 262nd game when they take on the Dragons.
This is the same Mannering who has been labelled a poor leader and overrated by some of the club’s own fans.
The criticism cut so deep that Mannering admitted to me a few years back that he seriously considered leaving the fish bowl of Auckland and moving to Sydney.
Then he could play without the barbs and accusations that he is part of the reason the Warriors aren’t a tough, winning football side. That’s laughable.
Ask any opposing coach for their thoughts on Mannering and the reaction is the same. They’d take him any day of the week.
Why? Because stats don’t lie. His tackle count on a weekly basis is ridiculous. His consistency is the same. You know what you get with Mannering — 80 minutes of relentless grind.
As we’ve seen with his reluctance to captain this side, Mannering is not an extrovert, he’s not flashy, he’s not going to break the line and run 80 metres. Maybe that’s where his critics come from.
But he is a Warrior in every sense of the word. Give me 13 Mannerings and I reckon you would not see the limp performances of recent years.
Tonight he makes history in a team that has constantly let him down. So let ’s hope the boys repay Mannering with a performance he deserves.