Manly star Reuben Garrick has opened up on his positional switch after turning down an offer to play fullback at the Knights to re-sign with the Sea Eagles long-term.
The Knights wanted Garrick to play fullback to allow Kalyn Ponga’s switch to five-eighth, but he ultimately chose to re-sign with Manly on a four-year extension through until 2027.
“Always my first option was here at Manly and the Knights liaised with my manager a bit there and gave me an option there in Newcastle,” Garrick told foxsports.com.au.
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“But I was stoked when Manly came to the party and gave me the deal they did, so I am pretty grateful to stay.”
However, Garrick admits the opportunity to switch to the centres was a part of his negotiations with Manly.
The club is well stocked for centre options with Tolutau Koula, Brad Parker and Morgan Harper also vying for a spot on the edge, but Garrick has been training hard in a bid to return to the position he grew up playing.
“I definitely want to switch to the centres,” Garrick said.
“Whether that happens straight away or not depends on how the backline sits with injuries and stuff like that for the start of the season, but I would love to play there.
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“I have obviously got to train my way in there and play my way into the position.
“There is a lot of competition in the outside backs here, so it has been good the last few months.”
Garrick believes the defensive side of the centre position will be his biggest challenge, but he will lean on his experience in junior rep teams to make the transition as seamless as possible.
“All my juniors I played centre and schoolboys and most rep sides at centre as well, so when I came to Manly that was the first time I actually played wing,” Garrick said.
“Centre was always my preferred position, but the hardest bit is definitely the defence.
“The defensive systems in the NRL every team would say the same thing, that they want their D to be better than their attack.
“It is definitely the hardest part about the position, but I have learnt a lot this pre-season at centre and I am really keen to hopefully play it this year.”
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Garrick played most of last season at fullback, after Tom Trbojevic was ruled out for the year with a shoulder injury, before suffering another hamstring setback in the 2023 pre-season that saw him go to the USA for treatment.
Garrick is comfortable in the fullback role if needed and also tipped a young gun to step up if required, but is hopeful Trbojevic’s injury struggles are behind him for the sake of the whole team.
“Turbo is tracking really good actually,” Garrick said.
“I spoke to him the other day. He is enjoying it over there in the US.
“I think he is being a bit of a sponge over there trying to soak up as much as he can and if it makes him a better player then that is a benefit to the whole team and himself.
“I’m really keen to get Turbo back here and work on some combinations leading into trials and Round 1.
“Whether it is me or one of the young fellas, Kaeo Weekes has been training really well at fullback as well, so I’m sure we will be able to do a job.
“But our priority is getting Turbo on the field because he makes everyone around him better players.”
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Perhaps the biggest change at the club in the off-season has been in the coaching ranks with Anthony Seibold and his new staff replacing Des Hasler at the helm.
Garrick believes the new coaching set-up has given a voice to some of the younger players in the squad and that is creating great depth and competition for spots.
“It is probably the complete opposite end of the spectrum with Des and Seibs,” Garrick said.
“Seibs has been really good in that we have quite a young squad this year and he has brought a lot of the young boys up and everyone has more of a voice in the team now.
“It is pretty cool seeing some of the young fellas have a bit more of a role to play and more of a word to say in our meetings and stuff like that. He has been really good for our whole squad.
“Des and Donny Singe had their way of doing things and it is pretty cool to learn a completely different way.
“I have only ever had Des and Donny here because I arrived at Manly the same year as they returned.
“It is a cool way to learn the game in a different light and a way for myself to grow as well.”
Another player set for a positional switch in 2023 is second-rower turned five-eighth Josh Schuster, who Garrick has seen thrive under Seibold in the pre-season.
“Josh (Schuster) is going really well,” Garrick said.
“He had a bit of a disrupted pre-season last year from memory so he has been injury free this pre-season and training really well.
“Like I said before Seibs has really brought a lot of these young guys up and given them more of a voice in our meetings and our team and that is only a benefit for our whole team I think.
“He is one of the guys that has benefited from that and he is starting to take a lot of ownership out on that edge and it is great to see. He is a great fella and I love playing outside him because something is always happening when he has the ball.”
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Part of Seibold’s revamped pre-season saw Manly recently go on an Army camp to build fitness, leadership and togetherness and Garrick revealed he wasn’t exactly a bag of laughs at Christmas after the gruelling expedition.
“It was extremely tough,” Garrick said.
“It is pretty cool learning off some of those guys because they have great systems in terms of leadership and hierarchy and ways to bring everyone in and delegation as well.
“It was pretty cool to work with those guys because that relates heavily to footy and out on the field when you have your leaders and different categories of players in the team.
“But it was pretty gruelling. Three days and I clocked it on my watch that it was 72km of hard slog with packs on the whole time.
“We were carrying stretchers and 20kg jerry cans. I got home after it and crashed out for a couple of days.
“I got down to family Christmas down the coast and had to sleep for the first 20 hours. Mum was going, are you alright?
“But it was a pretty good experience, but I was pretty wrapped when Seibs said we were only going to do it once.”
After a tough end to the 2022 season that saw the club lose seven straight to miss the finals, Garrick revealed the squad have made commitments to each other to return to the top four in 2023.
“I think it is about taking every game as it comes and we set goals as a team here about what we want to be and what our Manly DNA looks like,” Garrick said.
“That is something we are really going to strive for this year and building resilience in our side. Especially when teams come to Brookvale and no one gets through us.
“We really want to be a top four side and we owe it to everyone here in Manly in the members and the public to succeed.
“Everyone gets right behind us when we are doing well, so we need to build that trust in the community and trust in each other.”
