Writ Large: Meet the teen star ready to replace DCE at Manly
March 29, 2025 — 7.30pm
Onitoni Large had only just plonked himself down in the meeting room inside Manly’s centre of excellence at Brookvale when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
The next words heard by the teenage phenom, invited to train with the Sea Eagles first-grade squad during the summer, were: “Oi, you’re in my seat.”
Large turned around to discover he was sitting in the chair that belonged to Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans. The youngster was mortified.
“I was like, ‘Oh, do you want me to move?’ Large recalls. “And Chez was like, ‘Nah, it’s all right, I’m just pulling your leg.’ It was pretty funny.”
Given that Cherry-Evans has declared this will be his last season at Manly, it’s only a matter of time before Large takes his spot on the field as well. Large and fellow Sea Eagles young gun Joe Walsh are considered among the best emerging halves in the game, with club officials tipping them to combine at NRL level in the coming years.
Such is the regard in which Large, just 17, is held, Manly tried to play him in a pre-season trial. The club hoped to be granted an exemption after the NRL bent the rules for Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, who was allowed to make his first grade debut at the age of 17.
However, head office knocked back the request.
“I think I would have [handled it],” says Large, who moves into Manly’s top-30 squad next year. “I did the training with them and was tackling them, doing the dojo sessions and stuff. It obviously shows that they have a lot of confidence in me, so that made me feel more confident in my game.
“Knowing they’re backing me, I was really excited for that to come across. In the end it’s not what happened. I would have taken the opportunity with both hands, but it is what it is.”
Suaalii was the standout schoolboy in both rugby codes when he was coming through the grades, and there is similar hype about Large. The Scots College student joined the likes of Suaalii and Kurtley Beale in making the first XV of a GPS school while still only 15 years old.
He went on to captain the Combined Independent Schools 15s side, leading them to their first win at the Australian championships. The Campbelltown product has also captained the NSW U16 Gen Blues, was the player of the national championships at under-15s league level, and was arguably the most sought-after signature across either code as league and union jostled for his services.
Ultimately, he knocked back the Waratahs to sign with Wests Tigers, before switching to Manly.
A five-eighth with blistering acceleration, he has already been clocked at 10.74 seconds over 100 metres. His goal is to lower the GPS mark set by fellow Manly speedster Tolu Koula, of 10.58 seconds.
“I’m gonna try to beat it; it’s something I wanna go after,” he says. “When we do sprint training [at Manly] they put me up against Koula and I race him. It was pretty cool racing against him. All the boys were getting around it. I think he just beat me, or we drew, one of them.”
You only need to take a cursory glance at the many highlight reels of Large to realise he is something special. A five-eighth in rugby league, there’s the unmistakable burst of speed, but also the vision to set up his teammates.
While not quite as physically imposing as Suaalii at the same age, there are similarities.
“He’s a freak,” Large says. “Like me, he went to a private school and played rugby, played firsts and then played league, so I think that’s probably what we’ve got in common.
“We were both playing at a GPS school and can play league also … It’s just about limiting the distractions and I guess all that outside noise, so I’m just hopefully playing good footy.”
For all of his achievements and potential, there’s still some debate about who is the best footballer in the family.
Brother Ashton, a year younger, is a promising hooker also in the Manly system. Fourteen-year-old sister Olivia is also a standout in her age group, while father Andrew was also one of the best teens of his era, although his career never quite kicked on.
“He [Andrew[] mainly talks about what he did wrong, where he stuffed up is where he wants us to do right,” Large says.
“He’s really strict on us, he had some road bumps, and he really wants us not to be like that. He hasn’t really spoken about it heaps, just how he played at the Roosters.
“He said when he trained he had some of the greats like Brad Fittler above him.”
While disappointed Cherry-Evans is leaving, Manly believe in Large and Walsh they have their long-term halves pairing. That’s why if the club misses out on the signature of Canberra halfback Jamal Fogarty,
they will switch Tom Trbojevic from fullback to five-eighth to hold the fort until the youngsters are ready for grade.
Currently sidelined with a shoulder injury, Large feels the Sea Eagles will know when he’s ready to make the step up to NRL.
“It’s about trusting them, they will know what’s right for me,” he says. “It’s a bit scary that it is not too far away, but at the same time it is exciting. For the most part I’m not really like worrying about debuting or whatever.
“I’m just worrying about getting myself right in terms of learning and absorbing as much as I can before any of that and also just trying to enjoy my school years, being a teenager, spending time with my family and my mates.”
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