NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport / League

League: Next time, he'll step on the Gas

Chris Rattue
By Chris Rattue
Sports Writer·
19 Oct, 2006 07:22 AM8 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Simon Mannering in action during a team training session. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Simon Mannering in action during a team training session. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

If Simon Mannering's chase of Mark Gasnier had followed the turbo-charged path of his league career, he would have caught the star Australian centre the other night.

Gasnier remained just out of reach over the 80-metre pursuit, although the young Warrior - making his test debut - forced him to
score in the corner.

"I was pretty gutted I didn't catch him. I thought I had him but he put on a little step at the end," said Mannering, 20, from the Kiwis' Melbourne hotel this week. Big steps are more Mannering's lot.

As in his Gasnier chase, Mannering's league career has been a sudden turn followed by a mad dash to catch the big time.

It's been a winning run. As Mannering showed in the first Tri-Nations test, his rocket fuel is a tank-load of determination.

Napier-born Mannering's rise to the Kiwis ranks came just three years after he was a Nelson College rugby centre of no outstanding ambition. Just another footballer really, trundling around in the centres. Yet after just three league games, he made the national secondary school side.

In 2004, he was a Junior Kiwi. And 24 NRL first grade games were enough for Kiwis coach Brian McClennan to play the young NRL in the forwards against Australia.

His entry into the game is due entirely to the NZRL having planted a development officer - former Canterbury representative and brief Parramatta hopeful Paul Bergman - in Nelson at the time of Mannering's first XV career. Bergman was only there for a couple of years, and Nelson hasn't had a development officer since.

From the early days, Bergman believed Mannering's size and professional attitude made him a top prospect. He persuaded Mannering into the school's pickup league team for the six-week national championship in 2003, and then across the water into the capital's under-18 side, followed by the Bergman-coached Wellington Bartercard Cup team.

Mannering slept on Bergman's couch, and the coach got him a job installing insulation. At times, the young footballer cried enough and was ready to pack his bags. If this was a made-for-telly movie, coach Bergman would become a cross between a superhero and a surrogate father at this point. Not so. Bergman credits Mannering's father Guy, an accountant for fishing firm Talley's, as the supportive driving force behind this career.

When young Simon had thoughts of returning home, Bergman rang Guy and the ensuing father-and-son talks kept Simon Mannering in the game. Bergman recalls: "Guy Mannering was a rugby union joker and was fairly apprehensive at first. But he was the force behind all of this. He even flew to virtually every Bartercard Cup game Simon played."

Bergman's own professional league career derailed in Sydney during the early 1990s - the beaches and parties proved telling distractions. So Bergman, whose brother Phil was once a Warriors prospect, talks authoritatively when he says family support and a familiar environment are vital in the teenage years, even if there are exceptions.

And Bergman is adamant that the backing Mannering has received from his parents has been instrumental, whereas others have had lonely struggles in Australia.

Mannering came from a junior era which produced a batch of Wellington youngsters snapped up by NRL teams. They include Billy Manu (Storm), Isaac Luke (Bulldogs/Souths), Marvin Karawana (Bulldogs), John TeReo (Broncos), Wiremu Weepu (Panthers), Josh Davis (Parramatta) and Hanan Laban (Knights). Already, Weepu - scorer of the winning try in an upset Jersey Flegg (under-20s) final win over Newcastle - and Karawana have been cut.

"They return here feeling they are failures which isn't the case and are often lost to league. They might go to union, or they don't play anything at all," says Bergman, who is running the NZRL's pilot regional academy in Wellington.

"When you are training in the Australian heat, things aren't going well and you have no support to go home to, it's easy to suddenly feel lost."

The NZRL's response has been the Bergman-run academy, with 70 youngsters who are drilled in professional training methods, while having their education encouraged. The NZRL is talking to NRL clubs about linking up with the scheme. A key aim is to produce more stars for the Kiwis by keeping them here a bit longer. "That's until they have the emotional maturity to deal with the training over there and, how do I put this? - the Sydney entertainment scene," says an older, wiser Bergman.

These are not matters to concern Mannering anymore, however. He has already made the test grade, having only made his first-grade debut against the Broncos midway through the 2005 season.

HE ended up in Auckland - resisting interest from the Bulldogs and Eels - taking up an offer from former Warriors coach Daniel Anderson.

Despite shin problems last year and further leg injury problems in 2006, Mannering has become a pivotal Warrior and test rookie. He powered through the work against Australia, playing the first 50 minutes then coming back for about 12 minutes more. Bergman says: "Fitness is 90 per cent determination."

Bergman likes to run a training exercise for his kids, called "shark bait". Players wrestle 15 opponents in succession, one minute at a time. It destroys some, others are physically sick. None ever lasted like Simon Mannering.

"He would wrestle the last one as strongly as the first" says Bergman.

Bergman adds: "People realised the other night how fast he is, too.

"Mark Gasnier is a freak ... Simon would have been tiring at that point in the game - but he almost caught the greatest player in the world. Simon will be a household name in two or three years time, maybe sooner. He will end up in the forwards and become our Steve Menzies."

And if Mannering has to chase Gasnier again, don't be surprised if he hauls him in.


KEY MATCHUPS IN MELBOURNE

David Kidwell v Willie Mason

There is no more anticipated duel than this one. Mason's talking revenge after Kidwell's "cheap shot" last Saturday. Kidwell lacks courage and is reluctant to run the ball back at players he's just given the bash to, say Mason and Kangaroos coach Ricky Stuart. How will Kidwell react? You might feel the impact in your living room. The key for the Kiwis though will be for Kidwell to a) not get blindsided himself and b) not get blinded by the hype and instead look for those other inspirational touches he can produce.

Shontayne Hape v Greg Inglis

A big ask for Hape, who was in Melbourne waiting for the Kiwis and has had this week to reacquaint himself with the "family" after his season in Super League. A player in whom McClennan has deep trust because he's done any and every job asked of him by the Kiwis coach. Now he has to keep Greg Inglis scoreless on the wing. The Kiwis' defence gave him plenty of room last week and, as he showed with the Aussies' final try, he doesn't need very much. The defence is one thing McClennan is sure to have addressed this week and, in Hape, he also knows he has someone who can turn quickly and chase down the Aussies' attacking kicks, an area where Tame Tupou got caught short at Mt Smart.

Nathan Fien/ Jerome Ropati v Cameron Smith

If Fien plays the Kiwis get a specialist to run the dummy-half duties and that'll be crucial to giving them the spark and organisation they need. The Kiwis were too predictable in that area last week. They need variety - inside balls, switches to create momentum and then get Stacey Jones in range to create uncertainty with his kicks. With Smith, and Shaun Berrigan off the bench, the Aussies have a huge upper hand - so the Kiwis need to be more vigilant with their marker defence in Melbourne.

Stacey Jones v Darren Lockyer

Jones was short of a run last week and will be all the better for the blowout. He's someone worth having around in the charged atmosphere of Melbourne. He was left a bit short of options last week and very rarely put the Aussies in two minds with a dart or two. The Kiwis pack need to get him some decent ground gain this week to give him kicking options. The Aussies swallowed up the high ball all too easily, even in the wind at Mt Smart. Lockyer was ice-cool in game one, even when things hit boiling point in the big biff. He stays detached but focused, never pulled into the side issues. The Kiwis have to find some way of upsetting his rhythm, getting in to that protected space he seems to occupy just behind the front line.

- Andy Hay

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from League

Sport|league

Juggling jobs and family: Warriors Women tackle challenges of top sport

01 Jul 03:33 AM
Warriors

Boyd makes case to fill Warriors halfback void following Metcalf injury

30 Jun 11:00 PM
Warriors

Warriors struck another major blow as Metcalf set to miss season

30 Jun 05:38 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from League

Juggling jobs and family: Warriors Women tackle challenges of top sport

Juggling jobs and family: Warriors Women tackle challenges of top sport

01 Jul 03:33 AM

Apii Nicholls talks balancing league and police work on The Big League Podcast.

Boyd makes case to fill Warriors halfback void following Metcalf injury

Boyd makes case to fill Warriors halfback void following Metcalf injury

30 Jun 11:00 PM
Warriors struck another major blow as Metcalf set to miss season

Warriors struck another major blow as Metcalf set to miss season

30 Jun 05:38 PM
Premium
Kiwi athletes urged to watch what they wear - or risk falling foul of drug testers

Kiwi athletes urged to watch what they wear - or risk falling foul of drug testers

29 Jun 12:00 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP