{"id":377185,"date":"2024-03-18T00:54:04","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T01:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377185"},"modified":"2024-03-18T04:04:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T04:04:17","slug":"why-manu-isnt-the-solution-for-potential-chooks-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377185","title":{"rendered":"Why Manu isn't the solution for potential Chooks dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roosters<\/a> five-eighth L\ufeffuke Keary<\/a> is expected to miss at least a week of action, ruling him out of a clash with former club South Sydney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old left the field with a head knock<\/a> on Sunday afternoon in the side's loss to the Sea Eagles, with coach Trent Robinson claiming he was "in a good way" post-game in the dressing sheds.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Keary's history with concussions will likely see the Chooks err on the side of caution for the local derby, especially given the five-day turnaround.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Bunnies halfback dumped ahead of crucial clash\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Flanagan floats shake-up after Dragons nightmare<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> Secret 'spywork' that sunk record holder<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

His absence leaves plenty of question marks for Robinson to answer at the selection table, with a number of options \ufeffto wear the No.6 jumper against the Bunnies.<\/p>\n

Last season, Robinson made the big decision to bring Joey Manu<\/a> into the halves in a call that brought mixed results in his six starts at the position.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Narrow wins over the Dragons and Bulldogs – two teams that finished near the bottom of the NRL ladder – were overshadowed by losses against \ufeffthe Panthers and Cowboys.<\/p>\n

Another factor that could sway Robinson away from moving Manu back into the halves is the Kiwi star's likely exit from the club at the end of 2024, with a move to rugby union on the cards as his contract at Bondi comes to an end.<\/p>\n

Manu is set to join the 15-man code next year and placing him in the halves for a short-term stint, despite his enormous success at centre throughout his career, would appear an illogical move against a desperate Rabbitohs side.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Sandon Smith is among the most highly-regarded young players at the club and is a natural playmaker, despite spending most of his early career in the bench utility role for the Tricolours.<\/p>\n

\"Sandon<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old Gosford product made his NRL debut last year and has shown glimpses \ufeffof his massive upside, including a stellar display against the Storm in last year's finals that earned him a two-year contract extension.<\/p>\n

Such is the opinion of Smith within the organisation that they allowed local juniors Lachlan Lam and Ronald Volkman to walk away in 2022, allowing him to edge closer to a spot in the halves for the Roosters.<\/p>\n

Smith is expected to partner with Sam Walker long-term and with Keary likely to be sidelined for at least a week, now appears to be the time for Robinson to look towards the future and begin building a combination that could last a decade.\ufeff<\/p>\n

The club will announce their team for round three on Tuesday afternoon. \ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roosters five-eighth L\ufeffuke Keary is expected to miss at least a week of action, ruling him out of a clash with former club South Sydney. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":365514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=377185"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377189,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377185\/revisions\/377189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/365514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}