Matai ready to get Ruthless! Steve Matai has some wise words for some of his Manly teammates playing in their first ever NRL finals series at Allianz on Saturday: Go hard and be ruthless. You wouldn’t expect anything less from one of the biggest hitters in the game. His huge shots have been synonymous with the no-nonsense brand of football that opposing teams have come to expect from Manly over the years. “For the guys that have been there before, we’ve got to lead the way and we got show the boys what Semi-Final football is all about,” Matai said. “Go out hard. That’s what you have to do in the Semis, be ruthless, and that’s all we plan to do.” While Matai hinted that it may be nice to have the week off if they win, he says the boys are solely focused on this weekend and doing their jobs come Saturday. “We’ve got to treat it like a normal round game, but in saying that, there’s always nerves going in Semis. We have to perform well and I think we’ll do that,” Matai said. “We’re not looking too far ahead at the moment, we’re still focused on Saturday and hopefully we get the win and get a week off, and a good rest.” With his left edge partner, Jorge Tafua, returning this week from his two-match suspension, Matai is anticipating big things from the young flyer. “He’s had two weeks off. I’m expecting him to go out there and play his hardest, cause speaking to him during the week at training, he’s quite excited to take out his winger,” Matai said. “I’m hoping that he goes out there and runs hard, tackles hard and makes us all proud of him.” He also thinks that part of Jorge would be gutted his tally of 18 tries for the season was pipped by David ‘Wolfman’ Williams while he served his suspension. “I reckon there was. I think throughout the whole year he was hinting that he was going to get it, but serves him right I guess," Matai laughed. Video here: seaeagles.au/news-display/Matai-ready-to-get-ruthless/84330
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 12:03:01 +0000