League: Coach sure Watmough's old Manly mates won't pay him out

Anthony Watmough is one of three ex-Manly players in the Parramatta side. Photo / Getty Images

Parramatta coach Brad Arthur claims Manly are too smart to target former teammate Anthony Watmough in tonight's match at Pirtek Stadium.

Watmough, who is a life member of the Sea Eagles, left in acrimonious circumstances at the end of last year and has since claimed there was a toxic environment around the club during his final season.

It has set the scene for a potentially bruising encounter between the two old rivals in front of what's expected to be a sell-out crowd.

But Arthur, who worked as Geoff Toovey's assistant during the 2013 season, believes the presence of Watmough won't have been discussed at length by the Manly coaching staff.

"They are a tough team and know how to win a game of footy and are too smart to get caught up in any distractions," Arthur said.

"A lot of the stuff Choc [Watmough] said is all water under the bridge. A lot of what he says is tongue in cheek ...

"Maybe players may go a bit harder in their tackles early in the game, but nothing more than that. Once this game is over there will be no more talk about Manly."

Watmough is one of three ex-Manly players in the Parramatta side with Will Hopoate and Darcy Lussick also facing their old employers.

Former Eels Jamie Lyon, Cheyse Blair and Justin Horo are named in the Manly side with Feleti Mateo, who makes his debut following his move from the Warriors.

Despite so many inter-club connections, Arthur believes none of the players will be any more determined to claim the two points.

"I just think they'll want to open the season with a win," he said. "I don't think it matters if it's Manly or the Warriors they are playing against; they just want to win."

Meanwhile, Manly coach Geoff Toovey remains hopeful Daly Cherry-Evans will stay at the NRL club despite the offer of a new contract being withdrawn by chief executive Joe Kelly.

Kelly took the deal off the table after Cherry-Evans and his management failed to give the Sea Eagles an answer on their plans for the future by Monday's midday deadline, but Toovey believes talks can be resurrected.

"As far as I'm aware it's still bubbling away.

"It's been taken away so that we can focus on football," Toovey said.

"The last thing we want is for Chez [Cherry-Evans] to leave ... His best football has been played here and I think there is better football to come."

Five-eighth Kieran Foran is also off-contract but a deadline hasn't been set for him to sign and Toovey admitted he didn't know the club had issued a specific time frame for Cherry-Evans to re-sign.

Key stats
• Six of the past seven matches between these two sides at Parramatta have been decided by 10 points or less.

• Manly conceded an average of just 17.6 points per game last season; only the Rabbitohs (15.3) and Roosters (17.3) averaged less.

• In 2014 the Eels scored 19 of their 90 tries from over halfway, the most in the NRL.

• Manly's Brett Stewart scored 12 tries in his past 12 matches against the Eels. He's one try off entering the top 10 try scorers of all time.

• Parramatta won seven of their nine games at Pirtek Stadium last season - their best record since 2005.

- AAP