Manly United: Cohesion the challenge in classy mix of youth and experience

Youngsters Jimmy Oates, Rhyss Keane (both 18), Sam Gallagher and Joe Gibbs (both 16) came off the bench to see the result home against a near-full strength Blacktown side.
We were 3-0 up until the latter stages when a string of changes disrupted our rhythm and allowed Blacktown to breach our defence twice.
But the result was all the more admirable given the regular first-graders we had either missing or on the bench – Joey Schirripa, Andrew Mailer, Ash Ryan, Shaun Bowden, Craig Midgley, Keith Shevlin, Luke Femia and Brad Groves.
While Oates, Gallagher, Keane and Gibbs – the latter was playing under-16s just over six months ago – came off the bench, Andrew Hayward (last season?s under-20 captain) earned his first senior start while Mitch Macedo and Chris Van Leur also came into the match.
It?s early days yet, but the young players coming into the senior squad are looking very capable of keeping the regular first-graders honest this year – a year in which the squad has undergone its most major surgery in my seven years in charge.
The departure of seven players has paved the way for Macedo, Van Leur, Scotty Wright, Hayward and Luke Reading to make the jump up from the youth team.
Brodie Mooy, who played in the 20s in 2007 before moving to Marconi and then the Newcastle Jets, has also agreed terms for the coming season, pending his future with the A-League club.
A highlight for me is the number of local juniors coming through with Macedo, Van Leur, Wright and Hayward earning first-grade contracts this year alongside Bowden, Luke Femia and Jamie Garside.
Oates, another local junior, is a player to keep an eye on while defender Terry Lampard has returned to his local club in our 20s after several years at both Blacktown and Marconi.
And, while the youth coming through is a cause for optimism, the experience in the squad is improving all the time.
New signings Spencer Prior, Scott Thomas and Josh Sama will add steel and nous to the spine of the side to complement Brad Swancott, Craig Midgley, Schirripa, Groves, Robbie Cattanach, Shevlin and Mailer while Ryan, Bowden, Jamie Garside, Joel Grenell and Michael Lloyd-Green will be out to further establish themselves as senior players in 2009.
This weekend?s four-day pre-season camp in Wollongong will be crucial in helping to mould the new players into a unit and ensure we hit the ground running when the season starts on March 1.
The squad is well-balanced and has a great mix of mobility, flexibility and versatility but with such a large turnover we will need to work hard on cohesion over the coming weeks.
Source ? The Manly Daily
19/01/2009