OPINION: I cringed on Friday night.
There was something very wrong about seeing Manu Vatuvei given the number five jersey, even though he wasn't actually playing against the Panthers.
He walked onto the field with his family, tears in his eyes, and walked straight back off again. Then he watched the Warriors blow the chance to send him off in some kind of style. The last ten minutes - especially without Shaun Johnson - proved too much.
This isn't the way a legend who has given 13 years of his life, played 226 games and scored a record 152 tries for the only NRL club he's ever played for should go out. Manu deserved better.
Why did it have to end like this?
At the very least, Manu deserved to be carried off "Manu Vatuvei Stadium" on the shoulders of his teammates having given the Warriors faithful one last 80 minute display of the pace and power that made him an icon, and the chance to point at the camera and flash that golden smile we'll never forget.
Instead, what we got was sad and underwhelming.
The official line is that Manu couldn't play on Friday night for contractual reasons. What kind of contract doesn't allow you to play one last game for your club? And let's not forget the Warriors had to grant him an early release from his current contract to allow him to leave for Salford. Would one more game have hurt?
But this one runs deeper than the fine print. Because you can't help but feel this turned out to be a clause of convenience for the coach. If Manu had been available on Friday, would Stephen Kearney have picked him? Would he have let him run on in that number five jersey and stay on?
This may be Kearney's first season at the club, but the way the campaign has played out - even with some of the comments about Vatuvei upon his return from injury during the season - suggests that the Beast was never really part of Kearney's big picture at Mount Smart Stadium.
And if that's the case, that's fine. That's a coach's prerogative, and it would have reflected how many of the fans were feeling about Manu. We can only guess as to whether Kearney and Vatuvei ever actually had a conversation to that effect.
But however Kearney or the fans felt about how much bang they were getting for their buck from Manu, he deserved respect until the end. In hindsight, it would have been better for all concerned if Manu said goodbye at the end of last season. Now there's no escaping the fact that one of the Warriors' most committed and loyal players played just one game in his final year, before being allowed to trudge off mid-season to Salford and the Rugby League obscurity.
A sad end for a man whose smile lit up Mount Smart Stadium on many a dark day.
Andrew Gourdie is a presenter for Newshub and host of Sunday Sport with Jim Kayes on RadioLIVE.
