No way should we be playing Garrick at fullback. Honestly I’m not keen what so ever on us picking him up again.
He’s Manly supporters whipping boy and consistently makes negative metres on kick returns.
We’ve moved on and have a new crop of youngsters that look like they can be anything in first grade.
I agree.
At the risk of being called a death-rider, I've never understood the Garrick love on here.
Granted I'd not watched him with any interest when he played CC, but I'd seen enough games to form the opinion that he wasn't a great loss when he left. And that hasn't changed with the games I've seen of him at Manly. Defensively he's been a liability for Manly - even last year. Looking at the heat map for last year, most of Manly's conceded tries have been down his side of the field.
Much of the support for him has suggested that his inside men contribute to that. That might be true, but surely that same argument can be made for his attack. Watching his tries, there were a couple of nice finishes, but most are falling over the line or a clear run to the line. That really comes down to a well coached team and executed attack from his inside men. He played for a confident team with some good players in it and he benefited from that.
Taking out of consideration the possibility the inside men contributed to his defensive issues, he'd often got found out of position (particularly evident at fullback this year) and shirt grabbing.
I'd love to see him succeed and I'm sure a good coach may be able to improve some of these deficiencies, but I think we can do better than expect him to come back and immediately step into the side. For a start, we need forwards, not backs.