The 31-year-old formally announced his decision to end his career at the end of the NRL season
Warriors icon Simon Mannering will call time on his illustrious playing career at the end of the NRL season.
The 31-year-old forward and former club captain formally announced his decision this afternoon at a press conference at the club's Mt Smart headquarters.
Mannering will make his 294th club appearance in Sunday's home game against Melbourne and is on track to play his 300th game in the Warriors' final-round clash against Canberra on August 31. He will go beyond the triple-century if the side maintains its course to make their first finals appearance since 2011.
Mannering's pending retirement comes after he struggled to make a decision throughout the first half of the year as he weighed up whether to continue playing into a 15th season in 2019.
"It has taken a while to reach this point but I'm now comfortable with the decision I've finally made," Mannering said.
"It hasn't been easy that's for sure. There has been a lot to think about. I've really enjoyed this season and that was one of the factors that was playing on my mind.
"I'm really grateful to the Warriors for giving me the time I needed. It's a big call when you consider retirement, even more so having played my whole career for this great club.
"It's not over yet, though. There are still a lot of games to be played and I want to do all I can to help the team and the coaching staff in our bid to finish this season as well as we possibly can."
The former Kiwis skipper's recent retirement from international football prior to the Denver test, after playing 45 tests and in three World Cups, was a pointer that he might be looking for a new career path.
Mannering's decision also comes after he produced his best performance of the season in Sunday's emphatic 26-6 victory over Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium that saw him wind back the clock with a titanic display in both attack and defence.
That effort renewed hope that he might feel energized enough to continue playing but he will now look to channel all his energy into one last tilt at the club's elusive first premiership title win.
The Napier-born product is understood to be considering taking up a job either as a quantity surveyor or in carpentry as he looks towards life beyond football.
Simon Mannering leaves the field during his debut season with the Warriors. Photosport
Simon Mannering alongside Krisnan Inu and David Fa'alogo ahead of a test match against Australia in 2007. Photosport
Simon Mannering thanks the fans at the conclusion of the NRL Rugby League Grand Final in 2011. Photosport
Simon Mannering celebrates a try against the Rabbitohs last season. Photosport
Herald Sport vault - April 2, 2005 - No halting rookie's rise up the ranks
By Peter Jessup
When 18-year-old Simon Mannering takes the field for the Warriors against Souths tomorrow he will have just over 30 games of league behind him.
Mannering has had a meteoric rise, from college football straight to the national secondary schools' side after three games, to Wellington's junior representative sides then the capital's Bartercard Cup team, the Junior Kiwis then New Zealand A, and now the NRL.
He's nervous, but his mentor, Paul Bergman, who saw him playing for the Nelson College 1st XV and assured him he could have a big future in the 13-man game, told Mannering this week that it should be his Rabbitohs midfield opponents, Shannon Hegarty and Lee Hookey, who are anxious.
"All they know about you is that you're 18 and good enough to play for the Warriors,'' Bergman told the teenager, reassuring him he has an advantage because they won't have been able to study video of his play, as is the norm for NRL teams.
Bergman was development officer for the NZRL in Nelson when he watched that rugby game in August 2003, tapped Mannering on the shoulder and asked him to switch codes.
He was coach of the New Zealand secondary schools team that year and admits he virtually promised the lanky teen a spot.
"We were on our way to the national tournament at Hopu Hopu and I said if he played well there there was a very good chance he'd make the secondary schools team.''
Nelson won the second division of the national tournament and on the back of the three games there, Mannering played in the second row against an Aussie side who included Benji Marshall, Karmichael Hunt and six other New Zealand-linked players. The Kiwis were close losers.
Bergman shifted to Wellington to take its junior rep teams in the national juniors competition and the Bartercard Cup side, and asked Mannering to go with him. At 16, Mannering shifted across Cook Strait to sleep on a couch in Bergman's central-city apartment, working with him as a ceiling installer.
"So he's done it tough,'' Bergman said. "He was probably one of my best performers in Bartercard.''
Bergman played Mannering in the second row. "He's like a Steve Menzies. He's got height, he's fast, he's got good ball skills, he's aggressive, and the best thing is he has plenty of football nous. "It's a hard thing to develop in players, but Simon shows lots of football intelligence.''
Mannering has always been a left-side attacker. The game's flow generally runs more that way because right-handers favour passing in that direction. "Centre and second row are so interchangeable now they're almost the same,'' Bergman said.
He has no worries about Mannering stepping up. "Centre is his natural position so he'll be comfortable there. If I was head coach of the Warriors I'd be using him and I'd probably throw in a couple more [youngsters] - it's a young man's game, and with the experience of the likes of Steve Price around them, it's the ideal way to learn.
"There's plenty more like him about,'' Bergman said. Eight of his 2004 Bartercard Cup side made the Junior Kiwis or have been signed by NRL clubs, including 17-year-old Josh Davis, who was linked with the Eels; John Te Reo, who is at the Broncos; and Marvin Karawana and Isaac Luke, who are at the Bulldogs.
The Wellington NJC sides started training on November 1 and Bergman has 20 players in an academy fulltime and 26 part-time. Mannering's father, Guy, isn't worried about Simon's nerves getting the better of him. "Every time the bar has been raised he's stepped up. I'm confident he has the ability.''
