Blacktown Workers hooker Zach Dockar-Clay is confident he can still make an impact at NRL club Manly Warringah in 2020 despite the Sea Eagles signing Danny Levi in the off season.
The New Zealand-born skipper has had stints with Parramatta, Penrith, Hull KR, and the Townsville Blackhawks before joining the Sea Eagles in 2019. He played a part in their February Nines campaign as well as their trial against the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks last weekend.
In his 22 appearances for Blacktown last season, Dockar-Clay scored nine tries and notched 12 try assists and the 24-year-old is determined to maintain his consistency this season.
“We spoke a little bit about it before the trial on the weekend, there’s obviously opportunity there; don’t go out there and overplay your hand, just go out there be strong and defend really well,” Dockar-Clay said.
“He’s (Manly coach Des Hasler) not a guy that loves the showy stuff and that’s what I pride my game on, that sort of running game but I think if I just be defensively strong and do everything right each week for Cup and if the opportunity comes I’m ready to go.”
Having played in the halves for 12 games last season, Dockar-Clay is hoping the club will have a better run with injuries and can compete with the best teams in the upcoming season.
“It was a bit of tough start, there was a lot of injuries, everyone was switching around positions, I was playing half at one point and there were six different halves combinations,”
“When we stuck to one decent team and everyone was injury free we started putting a lot of pressure on the teams that were in the top of the tier.
“I think Souths were coming first last year against for the majority of the season and we ended up beating them both times by like 30 points.
“If we can stay injury free this year in the NRL and boys that come back for Blacktown, we all stay strong and everyone trains well I think we’ll definitely give it a red-hot crack this year.”
