Dyldam Parramatta Eels Captain Tim Mannah has fought back from injury to run out for the Blue and Gold in Saturday night’s Johnny Mannah Cup clash with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.
The Eels fought back from a 20-10 deficit to lead 28-22 before a late Sharks surge put the game out of reach at 35-28.
“I’d like to think I try my best to play any game no matter what the occasion is,” Mannah said.
“But I worked really hard to get right.”
“I thought we had it (the win). To be six in front leading into the last 10 minutes … We’ve just got to get better at closing games out and I thought they were really good at teaching us a lesson on how to do it.”
“As soon as they got a chance to manage the game in the last 10 minutes they handled it a lot smarter than we did.”
The Blue and Gold skipper was also impressed with young gun Daniel Alvaro as he scored his first NRL try, playing 42 minutes in just his sixth first-grade appearance.
“It was awesome, he’s got a big future in the game,” Mannah said of Alvaro.
“He’s one of those players that you really enjoy playing with. He trained outstanding in the off-season and I’ve got no doubt he’s got a big career ahead of him.”
