Brett Stewart seeking Crocker 'revenge' - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Brett Stewart seeking Crocker 'revenge'

By Todd Balym 08/04/2008 05:41:07 PM Comments (0)

Manly fullback Brett Stewart has called on his forwards to dish out some grand final revenge on headhunter Michael Crocker in Friday's re-match with Melbourne at Olympic Park.

Crocker infamously concussed Stewart in last year's grand final with a heavy shoulder charge as the custodian caught a towering Cooper Cronk bomb early in the second half.

Stewart says he will have no hesitation putting his body on the line again and jokingly called on his teammates to seek out Crocker, who has been named to play his first game of the season.

"I'm hoping they will," joked Stewart, before adding he and Crocker had spoken about the incident in the Australian Test camp late last year.

"It was water under the bridge a week or so after, no hard feelings, it was football.

"Especially at fullback I think you find yourself in those situations more often than other positions on he field.

"It's definitely added a bit of interest to the game on Friday night.

"I will be taking this as another game, if they want to put some bombs up then I'm going to be under them to diffuse them."

Veteran Steve Menzies said the Sea Eagles would be foolish to seek retribution on Crocker, knowing the Storm would simply exploit any breach of their defensive line.

"I don't think there's any singling out of individual players," he said.

"They're a skilful side and they will use that to their advantage.

"I think it would be silly to try and come out of the line or try and do some sort of revenge attack."

The Storm dominated last year's grand final, walking away with a 34-8 victory that left many Sea Eagles disappointed with their effort.

However the Sea Eagles are not treating the clash as a re-match.

Coach Des Hasler told his team at their first meeting this season that 2007 was to be forgotten and revenge was not a word in their vocabulary.

Prop Brent Kite says victory would not erase grand final pain, but it would significantly increase confidence and their 2008 prospects as both sides are 2-2 after indifferent starts.

"Even if you do win and win well how does that compare to a premiership ring? It just doesn't," said Kite.

"The motivation for me is about 2008, about beating the favourites to take out the cup this year and beating a team that is very hard to beat down there and has only lost a handful of games in a couple of years.

"That will be more pleasing than any sort of revenge."

Stewart meanwhile hopes his clash with Storm fullback Billy Slater will help Australian selectors decide on the No.1 jumper for the Centenary Test next month.

"I guess if you want to impress the Test selectors then this is the game to do it," he said.

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