Manly confident over Brett Stewart

Manly Sea Eagles are confident Brett Stewart will play apart in their NRL opener against Brisbane Broncos next Friday.

A four-year deal was agreed last year with the full-back, however as things stand he would be unable to play. This is due to him not having his contract rubber stamped by the governing bodies.

Salary cap auditor Ian Schubert rejected the deal and Stewart is yet to be registered with the NRL.

Recently appointed head of cooperate affairs, Neil Evans is however confident that he will be able to make his debut at the Suncorp Stadium: “Brett Stewart will play in round one, there’s no doubt. It’s only a minor thing we are working on, and we’re pretty confident it will be signed off very soon.”

The Sea Eagles were left with a number of players out of contract after winning the 2011 grand final but key players such as Daly Cherry-Evans, Matt Ballin, Kieran Foran and Steve Matai all re-sign with the club.

Tony Williams, Darcy Lussick, Dean Whare, Michael Oldfield, Vic Mauro and Liam Foran have all departed the club.

Sea Eagles chairman Scott Penn said: We’ll have to make some hard decisions and move on. The options are narrowing and we’re running out of time so it just need to be sorted.”