#KiwiNRL Manaia Cherrington To Join Cronulla Sharks
Remember when the Tigers had Cherrington, Te Maire Martin, Martin Taupau, James Gavet?
Hearing the news of Michael Ennis' retirement wasn't overly surprising. This is a bloke that has been around for a long time and while he's been playing great footy late in his career, Ennis is a smart operator and already has media gigs with Fox Sports. Like Corey Parker, Ennis has perfectly set himself up to transition into the media and he's perfectly set up to move on to the next phase of his footy-less life.
Immediately, my mind started wondering who would fill the void left by Ennis at Cronulla. This isn't a team that can wait a year or two to blood a young hooker as they are in the middle of their Premiership window with the necessary blend of youth and experience. The Sharkies lost their long-term dummy half option Michael Lichaa to the Bulldogs in what was effectively a swap for Ennis and at that point, you'd have to assume that Cronulla knew that they'd only get a few years out of Ennis.
My queries were quickly answered as kiwi hooker Manaia Cherrington was reportedly signed by Cronulla for 2 years. Cherrington has been an promising young hooker for Wests Tigers, getting minutes behind Robbie Farah but those minutes mainly came last season and this season has just seen Cherrington twiddle his thumbs in reserve grade. At the Tigers, there appeared to be a clear pathway for Cherrington to establish himself as an NRL hooker with Robbie Farah destined to move on at some point and Cherrington would then pounce.
As we all know, Jason Taylor has different ideas. Farah has been shafted and that's only pushed Cherrington further down the pecking order, which left many rugby league folk pondering Cherrington's next destination. Penrith was a romantic option for me as Cherrington would have joined a strong Maori contingent, re-uniting with his former Wests Tigers hombre Te Maire Martin as well as bringing what was once the Junior Kiwis' spine back together with Zach Dockar-Clay also at Penrith.
The Panthers are understandably fairly happy with the work of Peter Wallace, to the point where he took over from James Segeyaro as their starting dummy half and Penrith have recently signed Wallace until the end of 2018.
So instead of joining the Maori Panthers, Cherrington will take over from Ennis at Cronulla and it's just as good a situation for Cherrington. Cronulla are in a great position right now and will contend for a Premiership this season, but when Cherrington arrives, Cronulla will provide him with a spine that should be together for most of Cherrington's 2 year deal. Chad Townsend has moved from being a young half to an established NRL half, while James Maloney is still an Origin half and Ben Barba is enjoying a career resurgence with the Sharks.
What's interesting about the Sharks is that if anything should happen to these three (injury or leaving Cronulla), they have the likes of Valentine Holmes, Jack Bird and Fa'amanu Brown there ready to take over. From Cherrington's point of view, this means that regardless of what could happen to one or two of Cronulla's spine, they still have plenty of talent that will ensure that Cronulla absorb the loss of that player. Cherrington has security in the sense that he'll always have a few attacking weapons alongside him.
For the Sharks, they get a young dummy half who can take them forward beyond Ennis' retirement. A cynical perspective would lead Sharks fans to wonder whether Cherrington can offer what Ennis did, or that signing Cherrington is a step backwards of sorts but I reckon that Cronulla have the attacking prowess to absorb the loss off Ennis while Cherrington settles into his role. It's a fairly obvious note that Ennis would have waited to announce his retirement until Cronulla sealed the signing of his replacement.
As for Wests Tigers? Well Cherrington barely featured in their NRL set up this year so on the surface they don't lose a whole lot. However, Farah's situation is ongoing and Dene Halatau is retiring at season's end so there could have been an opportunity to pass the torch on to Cherrington and allow him to settle in as the Tigers long-term hooker. Taylor clearly isn't a fan of Cherrington though, probably because he does too much with the footy and the Tigers instead look destined to roll with Matt Ballin as their dummy half over the next few seasons.
Kiwi fans should be extremely excited about Cherrington's move to Cronulla as it's going to allow him to establish himself as a legit NRL dummy half. Cronulla already have pieces in place to ensure that not a whole lot will change from Ennis to Cherrington and instead of battlin' away in a less than ideal situation with Wests Tigers, Cherrington joins a Premiership contender who have a strong group of young players.