Perfect Mannahs - Parramatta Sun
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Perfect Mannahs
BY JOHN MACDONALD
3/09/2008 12:10:00 PM
In a league of their own: Jon (above) and Tim Mannah (below) poster boys for a better league.
Rugby league hasn't lacked for headlines all season, not when the game has been going set-for-set atrocities with the AFL.
Since Ben Cousins set his sizzling standard, the greatest game of all has risen infamously to the challenge in this its centenary year.
Rugby league doesn't need headlines it needs poster boys, but are there any role models for the kiddies who deserve headlines?
Indeed, they exist.
Step up, Parramatta's Mannah brothers, Jon and Tim.
The Toyota Cup players could step straight out from a non-player-managers casting room they've got the lot.
First, the strapping forwards are successful footballers.
Jon has been poached by Cronulla for next year ironically, Greg Bird's home and Toyota Cup captain Tim has already made Parramatta's NRL training squad.
More important, their poster attraction goes beyond football.
The Mannahs are both studying for tertiary degrees and their social lives are intertwined with their church.
"There's a lot more to life than football,'' Tim Mannah said of keeping a separation, so the game didn't dominate their lives.
"When we're not at training, we try to avoid football.''
Tim, 20, is in the third year of a five-year sports business degree.
Jon, 19, has been in the first year of an electrical engineering degree at UTS Sydney.
He's been driving a milk truck three mornings a week to support himself while studying.
"I'd start at 4am or on a late morning, 5.30am-6am delivering milk in the inner city,'' he said.
Electrical engineering? You'd have to be a bit of a whiz at maths and science? Correct.
"I like maths and I like working with my hands,'' Jon said.
"It's been hard to juggle the time, studying and training four days a week and concentrating on football.''
Jon Mannah has now taken a rest for a semester and has also been offered an apprenticeship as an electrician.
He has a decision to make.
Should he continue studying at UTS, defer his degree and take the apprenticeship, or concentrate on football?
Mannah said whatever his decision, he would work on post-football qualifications.
It's just the same for older brother Tim.
"I'm in the third year of a five-year degree and took advantage of the initial help Parramatta gives,'' he said.
"It's good to take a break from football.
"I found I could combine both the study and football when I trained with the NRL squad in the off-season.
"My father Fred has a strong work ethic and both our parents encouraged us and said if you worked hard and tried your best, you achieved.''
In this blighted centenary it can be forgotten that for much of the game's history, its participants had to work hard as well as achieve as footballers.
Yes, the Mannahs have manners and meet the criteria image makers dream of.
Dare it be said: rugby league would wish there were more Mannahs from heaven.