The Manly Sea Eagles have continued their recruitment drive of young players, landing one of the best playmakers under the age of 18 from the Sydney Roosters.
After losing several promising juniors in recent months, headlined by the departures of duo Campbell Munn and Callum Dowell, the Sea Eagles have been able to return serve.
Despite already having two of the best young playmakers in their system in Joey Walsh and Onitoni Large, Zero Tackle understands that the Sea Eagles have beefed up their halves stocks by signing Lachlan Metcalfe from the Sydney Roosters.
The move will see Lachlan link up with the same club as his older brother, Blake, who made five NSW Cup appearances for the Sea Eagles this season, with three of them coming at the starting fullback position.
Still eligible to play in the Under-19s SG Ball Cup for the next two seasons, Metcalfe has been considered as an elite playmaker for a number of years and is coming off a strong Under-17s Harold Matthews Cup campaign, which saw him guide the Roosters to the opening week of the finals.
A student of Hills Sports High School, the youngster also spent time at the Parramatta Eels before the past two years at the Roosters.
“He’s sort of born into rugby league, and he’s just a tremendous human,” a rugby league official told Zero Tackle.
“He’s just calm, collected, got a great forward-kicking game, great running game and he’s tipped to be a player for the future.
“You can expect to see some big things from him. He’s got a great boot, kicks a couple 40/20 most games and he’s got a real nice running game and passing game.
“It could be the first minute of the game or the 17th minute of the game and he’s never out of breath. He’s never frazzled, he doesn’t panic. He’s just such a calm and collected player.
“As long as he keeps working hard, which I know he does, he should set himself up for hopefully a nice little leg up to having a good career as an elite athlete.”
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