Jack Greenwood continues to impress at Manly

Manly United’s young goalkeeper Jack Greenwood has been invaluable between the sticks for the Northern Beaches outfit in the 2022 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s competition.

At just 22-years-old Greenwood has had some impressive experience within the A Leagues youth setups at the Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers.

A product of the NSW football system, the Spirit FC junior made the move to Manly United ahead of the 2022 season.

The unfortunate career-ending injury to former United number one Sam Benton opened up the door for Greenwood to show his worth at the club.

“I started at Spirit, so pretty much all my journey is there,” Greenwood said.

“From there I played for the Central Coast Mariners in the NYL before then going over to Western Sydney.

“I spent some good time there, and I was fortunate enough to be in and around the first team quite a bit which was quite good for me and I was even fortunate enough to end up playing a couple of games in the A-League so that was a really good experience.

“When COVID came around I ended up going back to Spirit and I was there for the COVID season and the start of last season before I got injured.

“I missed quite a bit of last season and then made the move over to Manly over the offseason.”

The youngster has nothing but positive things to say about his new club, applauding the culture of the team for welcoming him so positively.

“It’s been great so far, I’m really enjoying my time there,” he explained.

“It’s a really good club with a lot of great people involved, and they’ve helped me settle in almost immediately.

“To be around a club with great people and good coaching staff has definitely helped me settle in and feel welcome.”

With a new ground and plenty of investment in creating a supportive and professional football environment, Manly United have proven they are the perfect home for talented young footballers like Greenwood.

“Coming from my background and seeing how a lot of the elite teams’ work, Manly would be on par or getting close.

“They’ve got the right people involved and are investing in the right areas to really drive the club forward to at least be on that same level as most elite clubs.

“It’s something good to be a part of and I can definitely see things moving in the right direction.”

Greenwood has been a constant feature of the Manly United line up – something he finds valuable as a young goalkeeper in a top-tier men’s league.

“Having missed a lot of football last year for injury and the stoppages with COVID as well over the last couple of years a big goal for me was just to get back out on the pitch and try and as many consistent games as possible – that was probably my main goal.

“From there I just want to keep trying to play well and just try and put in good performances for Manly to try and repay some of that faith.

“I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve been able to work with some good coaches where they put their faith in me and I’ve just tried to do my best and to try and repay them that way.”

With plenty of potential in football, Greenwood is solely focused on the current challenge rather than looking too far into the future.

“All I worry about is just putting good performances for Manly, anything else is outside of my control really,” he said.

“My goal this year was just to get back out on the park and just play consistently.

“Once I play consistently and am putting in good performances every week, everything else is outside of my control.”

With an exceptional mentor in coach and former Socceroo Adam Griffiths, Greenwood is lapping up having someone so experienced to learn from.

“I’m really enjoyed my time working with Griff so far – he has been great,” he explained.

“That experience that he has from his playing days, he shares in great detail with a lot of the lads.

“He’s formed a really good environment and there have been plenty of players who are thriving in that environment and that’s a credit to him and to the coaching staff that he’s put together.”

Well and truly in the finals race, Manly United have enjoyed some success so far this season and they’re taking the remainder of the competition one step at a time, leaning on the Manly faithful to drive them through the final leg.

“We’ve started the season relatively well,” Greenwood said.

“Of course, we’ve only just gotten past the halfway point so it’s still fairly early on in that respect and nothing’s really been achieved as of yet.

“Having had to play the first few games the season away from home, looking at the drawing now we’ve got quite a good run of home games coming into the end of the season.

“Our goal is just to try to capitalise on that factor and to try and pick up as many points as we can now having that home ground advantage.

“If we do that, and we just keep playing the way that Griff sets us up to, then we’ll just re-evaluate from there.”

-By Madeline Riley