Tim Mannah was a durable front-row workhorse through some memorable highs and challenging lows during a decade with Parramatta. Big League had a chat with the former Eels captain, and NSW and Lebanon rep.
WHAT’S BEEN KEEPING YOU BUSY SINCE YOU RETIRED IN 2019, TIM?
I did a business degree and financial planning diploma when I was playing, I got my real estate license and did a TV presenting course. And when I retired, I was working with the commercial team at Parramatta, looking after our sponsors. One of my clients was the owner of Lending Association, I went to his office to present … [then] he gave me an opportunity to start something new with him, LA Partnerships. We basically partner with accounting firms who bring in their clients to get looked after with us for their lending needs. LA Group also owns a company called Australian Mortgage Fund, AMF, and I work within both sides of the business. Outside of that, I’ve got a property development company called Rayne Projects that I’ve partnered with. I also do SEN commentary on the weekends and co-host a Fox Sports show every Tuesday with Matt Russell.
WINDING BACK TO THE START OF YOUR CAREER, PLAYING EVERY GAME IN THE EELS’ INCREDIBLE 2009 SEASON AS A 21-YEAR-OLD ROOKIE MUST HAVE BEEN A BLAST?
It’s probably sad to say, but my career peaked very early … that was by far my most enjoyable season. We had a really close group of friends in that team, it was a really good culture to be a part of and that ride was just fun. I don’t know how else to explain it. It wasn’t a traditional journey to a grand final, coming from second-last halfway through the year – the last 10 games was almost do or die for us. But we weren’t going into games nervous or anxious, we were going in there excited. We had music playing in the changing rooms, everyone was relaxed. We had Krisnan Inu and Feleti Mateo, guys that could just play entertaining footy, obviously “Haynesy’ (Jarryd Hayne) was leading the way for us, but we had a really good balance between that X-Factor and the older guys like (Nathan) Cayless, (Nathan) Hindmarsh, ‘Burty’ (Luke Burt) providing a level head for the team. It would have been nice to have gone one step further, but sport doesn’t always work out exactly how you hope.
IT SEEMED THE CLUB WAS ON THE CUSP OF A GOLDEN ERA BUT IT DIDN’T UNFOLD THAT WAY – YOU HAD FOUR COACHES IN THE NEXT FIVE SEASONS – HOW TOUGH WAS THAT PERIOD?
It was really draining – it does take a toll on you. I point to [players at] successful clubs like Cameron Smith, you can actually extend your career when you’re winning games because it’s not only the toll on your body, but mentally as well. On top of that, coaches feel the need to train you harder when you’re losing, so your body’s getting pushed more and more. You’re defending a lot more in games because you don’t have much ball. On top of that, I got made captain pretty young in my career as well, so you’ve got your eyes opened to all the politics around sport – when you’re young, you’re kind of oblivious to it. You’re playing for the love of the game … then in that [leadership] role, every time there’s a board change, a new chairman wants to talk to you about the direction of the club. Every time a new coach comes in, they grab you under their wing and say, ‘This is what we need from you and we need you to drive this for us and get the players on board’. It almost takes a bit of the fun away from it.
LOSING YOUR BROTHER, JOHNNY [TO HODGKIN’S LYMPHOMA], DURING THAT PERIOD MUST HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLY CHALLENGING, TOO…
I got made captain around that time as well. It was a stressful time. Johnny wasn’t just my little brother, he was also my best mate. We lived together, we travelled together, we played footy together. It was a really tough time to go through. We had a lot of support, which I’m really grateful for – the whole rugby league community really banded around us and helped make the loss less impactful. It was a challenging time, but in many ways rugby league helped me through it. I know it sounds bad [to call it] a distraction, but it helped me shift my focus onto something else and not dwell too much on the loss.
THEN THE EELS WERE HIT BY THE SALARY CAP SAGA AS THEY APPEARED TO BE TURNING THINGS AROUND…
The frustrating part about that was we signed Kieran Foran, Anthony Watmough, coming out the other side of what seemed to be a really tough ride. We finally had a team that we were successful with, so to have that happen when it did, the timing couldn’t have been worse. And as captain, the CEO is asking you to manage the players’ expectations and trying to explain their reason for what they did. If I’m being honest, I was pretty frustrated with the whole thing.
FINALLY COMING OUT THE OTHER SIDE, CAPTAINING THE EELS BACK TO THE FINALS IN 2017 WOULD HAVE PROVIDED A SENSE OF RELIEF?
Yeah, 2017 was fun. I wouldn’t say it was as fun as 2009 – that was just a different part of my career where I was younger, oblivious to all the politics. In 2017, I was probably jaded by all the politics, I had one eye on that but also had the ability to enjoy what we were doing. I was really disappointed by that finish (going out of the finals in straight sets), but the journey was really fun.
THEN FINISHING OFF THAT YEAR PLAYING FOR LEBANON AT THE WORLD CUP, WHAT DID YOU MEAN TO YOU TO REPRESENT YOUR HERITAGE?
I wouldn’t say I played begrudgingly, but my whole career I used to look at the off-season as the chance to travel and get away from football. But Lebanon hadn’t qualified for a World Cup since 2000, and Robbie Farah is very passionate about the Lebanon team and he valued all the NRL players who got behind him and embraced it. I’m so glad he did. ‘Freddy’ Fittler coaching us was a huge blessing when you look at his ability to create an environment that is enjoyable. He made that five weeks together among the most special times myself and so many of those players ever had. A lot of the players were part-timers and tradies, but we still really matched up with some of the best players in the [NRL].
I’ll be supporting them at the World Cup this year – I love how far they’ve come since 2017. They’ve got so much talent and it’s purely a generational thing. If you look at me and Robbie Farah, for example, we have immigrant parents that came from Lebanon, encouraged us to study and didn’t really understand rugby league. They supported us but they didn’t really drive it. Whereas now you’ve got second-generation Aussies that are happy to support their kids, get them into coaching, get them whatever support they need to excel in rugby league. We’re seeing a wave of Lebanese players coming through now as a result.
DATE OF BIRTH
15 February, 1988
CURRENT AGE
38
BIRTHPLACE
Sydney, NSW
POSITIONS
Prop
PLAYING HISTORY
2009-19: Parramatta Eels
REP FOOTBALL
2010-13: City Origin
2010-11: NSW
2010-12: Australian Prime Minister’s XIII
2017, 2019: Lebano
JUNIOR CLUB
Guildford Owls
TOTAL NRL MATCHES
233
TRIES | POINTS
6 | 24
