Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan says he fully expected controversial recruit Todd Carney to make a strong first impression on debut for his new club, insisting the troubled playmaker is finally maturing off the field.
Carney, who was cut loose by the Roosters in October last year after violating a booze ban, gave long suffering Sharks fans reason to believe with a dominant performance in Friday's 38-6 trial win over defending premiers Manly at Shark Park.
His last game might have been 180 days ago, but the 2010 Dally M Medallist looked like he'd never been away.
He appeared comfortable and composed throughout his 33-minute cameo, scoring two brilliant solo tries before leaving the field to rapturous applause from the Sharks faithful in the 73rd minute.
The 25-year-old produced consecutive right-foot steps to score from close range in the 66th minute and backed it up with a 90m intercept try in the 72nd to cap a memorable debut at his third NRL club.
"He's a quality player and what I've seen at training over the last couple of months, he just showed a little bit of that today," a delighted Flanagan said after the match.
"He's got real good speed, he controlled the game, turned players under and kept getting to field positions that he wanted to kick from, and then when the opportunity arises he drives the nail in."
"He's a quality player and as I've said a lot of times, I'm glad we got him."
"I wasn't real surprised with how he went. I wouldn't have expected him to grab those tries but I've seen him obviously at training and he's been doing a good job, he's got his head in the right space at the moment and I've just got to keep him there."
Pressed on how he plans to keep Carney - a serial off-field offender - on the straight and narrow, Flanagan replied: "Maturity. Hopefully he is starting to mature and he values his football. He knows there's no more chances after this but he's enjoying his time here."
"We're working really hard with him. We've got some things in place that hopefully ... we're not saying it's foolproof, but there are some players here who have taken a little bit of ownership."
"Ben Ross, Paul Gallen, Wade Graham, there are a heap of them who have taken it upon themselves to have a bit of care about Todd as well."
"To be fair the Shire's been pretty good to him as well."
But Flanagan insists there were other positives to come out of his side's dominant performance.
"Todd played great but I thought our front rowers (and Issac de Gois) played a great game," he said.
"That's where we need to build."
"It's a trial (but) we defended our tryline, we didn't have to defend our tryline too often but we defended well and some combinations started to form there."
"I couldn't be happier from where we are tonight."