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Manly skipper Daly Cherry-Evans still remembers being hauled into Trent Barrett’s office midway through the 2016 NRL season.
Barrett was in his first year as head coach of the Sea Eagles, and his multimillion-dollar halfback was in a rare rut.
“I was playing some average footy, and to compound things, I was also injured twice that year, so I was missing games and not playing well when I came back,” Cherry-Evans told the Herald.
“Baz called me into his office, slipped a piece of paper with a list of all the halves in the game and said, ‘this is how far down the pecking order you have slipped’. He said, ‘I’m not sure what your aspirations are as a footy player, but this is where you sit’. He was being honest.
“I won’t say how many halves were above me on that list. There were a lot. The usual suspects like JT [Johnathan Thurston] and Coops [Cooper Cronk] were up the top.
“But that was exactly the feedback I needed. In this game you get a lot of people who tell you what you want to hear. I’ve always found I get the response from myself as a player when I get feedback from people who have my best interests at heart. Baz was someone like that.”
It is easy to forget Barrett, now in charge at Canterbury, returns to Manly for the first time as a rival head coach since his spectacular fallout with the Sea Eagles. The club was prepared to pay him his full salary through most of 2019, provided he stayed away from the place so Des Hasler could kick-start his Sea Eagles second coming.
Barrett retains strong support from the Manly players, most notably Cherry-Evans, whom he made skipper ahead of Jake Trbojevic after gauging his interest during a pre-Christmas training camp in Coffs Harbour at the end of 2016.
Barrett visited 4 Pines Park as an assistant with Penrith in 2020, while his last home game in charge of Manly was an upset loss to the Gold Coast Titans - a whole 1318 days ago - which featured Cherry-Evans breaking ranks to question if the coach had the support of the club’s front office.
Cherry-Evans said Barrett could expect a frosty reception on Sunday evening, which was expected for any former coach or player in opposition colours.
Manly skipper Daly Cherry-Evans remains a huge fan of the Dogs coach.Credit:Getty
Barrett said on Friday about his Brookvale return: “I’ve still got a lot of friends over at Manly, there were some good times there as well - it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
“They had a really good team there. I certainly learned a lot [when coaching]. You look back and reflect on those years, there were some valuable lessons there.
“Patience [was the biggest lesson]. I’ve never been one to be very patient, but things don’t happen overnight.”
Just as he was honest with Cherry-Evans, Barrett has made a point of keeping it real with Canterbury and their expectations as they enter the second year of his rebuild.
Few will give the Dogs a hope of knocking off a winless Manly, especially if Tom Trbojevic finally gets in a mood.
But at least there will be no repeat scenes like last year when the Sea Eagles were thumped 66-0, which featured a shattered Barrett sitting down for the start of the press conference, rubbing his hands over his face and muttering “f..k me” as the TV cameras rolled.
Barrett could not bring himself to greet his Manly mates in the sheds, and senior Sea Eagles knew it was best to give the ultra-competitive coach his space. “That day we had 10 blokes still eligible for under 20s,” Barrett said.
“It wasn’t a true reflection of where we were at. It was hard. Last year was difficult. You learn a lot about each other and you learn a lot about a lot of people at your club when you go through tough times.
“We’ve made a lot of changes the last 18 months and we’re heading in the right direction. We need to back up our last two performances and play well Sunday.”
Barrett rated Trbojevic the best player in the game in the lead-up to last year’s Saturday afternoon pounding, and nothing had changed his mind, despite “Turbo” being kept quiet the opening fortnight of this season. “He’s a freak, Tom,” Barrett said.
“Everyone has known about Tom since he was 14. He’s a terrific player, he’s an athlete you don’t see very often with his size and power and he has really good anticipation - he knows where to be and where the ball is and where space is.
“We’ve done our homework on him, but it’s about limiting the damage he does.”
Trbojevic loved Barrett for being an attack-oriented coach, but also anticipated the sea of Manly maroon and white to show him no love. “I really liked Baz, but it’s rugby league, the fans will boo him, that’s how it works,” Trbojevic said.
Barrett will appreciate the honesty.
www.smh.com.au
Barrett was in his first year as head coach of the Sea Eagles, and his multimillion-dollar halfback was in a rare rut.
“I was playing some average footy, and to compound things, I was also injured twice that year, so I was missing games and not playing well when I came back,” Cherry-Evans told the Herald.
“Baz called me into his office, slipped a piece of paper with a list of all the halves in the game and said, ‘this is how far down the pecking order you have slipped’. He said, ‘I’m not sure what your aspirations are as a footy player, but this is where you sit’. He was being honest.
“I won’t say how many halves were above me on that list. There were a lot. The usual suspects like JT [Johnathan Thurston] and Coops [Cooper Cronk] were up the top.
“But that was exactly the feedback I needed. In this game you get a lot of people who tell you what you want to hear. I’ve always found I get the response from myself as a player when I get feedback from people who have my best interests at heart. Baz was someone like that.”
It is easy to forget Barrett, now in charge at Canterbury, returns to Manly for the first time as a rival head coach since his spectacular fallout with the Sea Eagles. The club was prepared to pay him his full salary through most of 2019, provided he stayed away from the place so Des Hasler could kick-start his Sea Eagles second coming.
Barrett retains strong support from the Manly players, most notably Cherry-Evans, whom he made skipper ahead of Jake Trbojevic after gauging his interest during a pre-Christmas training camp in Coffs Harbour at the end of 2016.
Barrett visited 4 Pines Park as an assistant with Penrith in 2020, while his last home game in charge of Manly was an upset loss to the Gold Coast Titans - a whole 1318 days ago - which featured Cherry-Evans breaking ranks to question if the coach had the support of the club’s front office.
Cherry-Evans said Barrett could expect a frosty reception on Sunday evening, which was expected for any former coach or player in opposition colours.
Manly skipper Daly Cherry-Evans remains a huge fan of the Dogs coach.Credit:Getty
Barrett said on Friday about his Brookvale return: “I’ve still got a lot of friends over at Manly, there were some good times there as well - it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
“They had a really good team there. I certainly learned a lot [when coaching]. You look back and reflect on those years, there were some valuable lessons there.
“Patience [was the biggest lesson]. I’ve never been one to be very patient, but things don’t happen overnight.”
Just as he was honest with Cherry-Evans, Barrett has made a point of keeping it real with Canterbury and their expectations as they enter the second year of his rebuild.
Few will give the Dogs a hope of knocking off a winless Manly, especially if Tom Trbojevic finally gets in a mood.
But at least there will be no repeat scenes like last year when the Sea Eagles were thumped 66-0, which featured a shattered Barrett sitting down for the start of the press conference, rubbing his hands over his face and muttering “f..k me” as the TV cameras rolled.
Barrett could not bring himself to greet his Manly mates in the sheds, and senior Sea Eagles knew it was best to give the ultra-competitive coach his space. “That day we had 10 blokes still eligible for under 20s,” Barrett said.
“It wasn’t a true reflection of where we were at. It was hard. Last year was difficult. You learn a lot about each other and you learn a lot about a lot of people at your club when you go through tough times.
“We’ve made a lot of changes the last 18 months and we’re heading in the right direction. We need to back up our last two performances and play well Sunday.”
Barrett rated Trbojevic the best player in the game in the lead-up to last year’s Saturday afternoon pounding, and nothing had changed his mind, despite “Turbo” being kept quiet the opening fortnight of this season. “He’s a freak, Tom,” Barrett said.
“Everyone has known about Tom since he was 14. He’s a terrific player, he’s an athlete you don’t see very often with his size and power and he has really good anticipation - he knows where to be and where the ball is and where space is.
“We’ve done our homework on him, but it’s about limiting the damage he does.”
Trbojevic loved Barrett for being an attack-oriented coach, but also anticipated the sea of Manly maroon and white to show him no love. “I really liked Baz, but it’s rugby league, the fans will boo him, that’s how it works,” Trbojevic said.
Barrett will appreciate the honesty.
Brookie errors: Barrett returns to unhappy hunting ground
Trent Barrett and senior Manly players reflect on the coach’s time in charge as he returns to Brookie for the first time with rivals Canterbury.
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