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Manly must beat Storm: Orford
nrl.com
Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 2:31 PM
Despite sitting atop the NRL ladder after ten rounds, Matt Orford believes Manly need a win over competition favourites Melbourne this weekend to be considered genuine title contenders.
The Sea Eagles have surprised many so far this season by winning nine from ten and are yet to field their strongest side.
And with many still casting doubts about whether the Sea Eagles can keep it going, halfback Orford believes they have no better chance to prove they're the real deal than at Brookvale on Saturday night.
"The Storm deserve the title (of premiership favourites)," Orford said.
"They are the benchmark, they were grand finalists last year and this year they have just taken another step, I think they deserve all the credit they get.
"I guess they're the ones you've got to knock off the perch to be real title contenders and we'll see how we go on Saturday night."
Asked whether a win against the Storm would make people stand up and take serious notice of the Sea Eagles' premiership credentials, Orford said: "I think it might, yeah.
"We're definitely heading in the right direction - I mean we haven't fluked nine wins and one loss.
"But I know there's plenty of improvement and coming up against such a quality team is really going to be a good test.
"This will be our biggest test for sure."
Orford will partner Jamie Lyon in the halves after the Blues centre was named at five-eighth for only the second time this season.
With centres Steve Bell (Origin duty) and Steve Matai (suspension) returning, Manly's first choice halves pairing have been given a chance to develop their combination but Orford was adamant doing so in the crunch game wasn't a risk.
"We played with each other all through the trials and in pre-season," Orford said.
"He'll slot back in, he's a class player so nothing will change too much and we'll just keep doing what we're doing.
"I had a disruption earlier during the year with injury, so hopefully the more games we get together the better we are going to be."
Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler said his side had proved their versatility already this season.
"Regularly changing your dummy halves and halves combinations can give you some disruption but we've tended to handle it pretty well this year," Hasler said.
Hasler said the top-of-the-table clash hadn't come at an ideal time but was pleased he was starting to get most of his key players back on the paddock.
"It'll be an uneven playing surface unfortunately with such a short turnaround (from Monday's win) and both sides have numerous players backing up from State of Origin," Hasler said.
"It's going to come down to who comes through that unscathed."
Meanwhile, the club said they had "strongly addressed" a nightclub incident involving Matai last Sunday week.
The New Zealand international allegedly threatened and abused a barmaid at a Manly hotel after he was refused service for being too intoxicated and the woman was reportedly so traumatised she resigned.
But the club said they had internally dealt with the matter swiftly and that Matai had apologised to the woman.
Source: AAP
nrl.com
Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 2:31 PM
Despite sitting atop the NRL ladder after ten rounds, Matt Orford believes Manly need a win over competition favourites Melbourne this weekend to be considered genuine title contenders.
The Sea Eagles have surprised many so far this season by winning nine from ten and are yet to field their strongest side.
And with many still casting doubts about whether the Sea Eagles can keep it going, halfback Orford believes they have no better chance to prove they're the real deal than at Brookvale on Saturday night.
"The Storm deserve the title (of premiership favourites)," Orford said.
"They are the benchmark, they were grand finalists last year and this year they have just taken another step, I think they deserve all the credit they get.
"I guess they're the ones you've got to knock off the perch to be real title contenders and we'll see how we go on Saturday night."
Asked whether a win against the Storm would make people stand up and take serious notice of the Sea Eagles' premiership credentials, Orford said: "I think it might, yeah.
"We're definitely heading in the right direction - I mean we haven't fluked nine wins and one loss.
"But I know there's plenty of improvement and coming up against such a quality team is really going to be a good test.
"This will be our biggest test for sure."
Orford will partner Jamie Lyon in the halves after the Blues centre was named at five-eighth for only the second time this season.
With centres Steve Bell (Origin duty) and Steve Matai (suspension) returning, Manly's first choice halves pairing have been given a chance to develop their combination but Orford was adamant doing so in the crunch game wasn't a risk.
"We played with each other all through the trials and in pre-season," Orford said.
"He'll slot back in, he's a class player so nothing will change too much and we'll just keep doing what we're doing.
"I had a disruption earlier during the year with injury, so hopefully the more games we get together the better we are going to be."
Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler said his side had proved their versatility already this season.
"Regularly changing your dummy halves and halves combinations can give you some disruption but we've tended to handle it pretty well this year," Hasler said.
Hasler said the top-of-the-table clash hadn't come at an ideal time but was pleased he was starting to get most of his key players back on the paddock.
"It'll be an uneven playing surface unfortunately with such a short turnaround (from Monday's win) and both sides have numerous players backing up from State of Origin," Hasler said.
"It's going to come down to who comes through that unscathed."
Meanwhile, the club said they had "strongly addressed" a nightclub incident involving Matai last Sunday week.
The New Zealand international allegedly threatened and abused a barmaid at a Manly hotel after he was refused service for being too intoxicated and the woman was reportedly so traumatised she resigned.
But the club said they had internally dealt with the matter swiftly and that Matai had apologised to the woman.
Source: AAP
