Manly coach Geoff Toovey has signed a two-year contract extension that will keep him at the NRL club until the end of 2016.
Toovey has been rewarded for guiding the Sea Eagles to two successive top-four finishes and last year’s grand final, having taken the job following Des Hasler’s shock move to Canterbury in late 2011.
In his first season at the helm, Manly reached the preliminary final where they went down to Melbourne before falling at the final hurdle to the Sydney Roosters in 2013.
“The whole club is proud of the fact that Geoff has agreed to a two-year extension for seasons 2015 and 16,” Manly CEO David Perry said.
“You wouldn’t find a more passionate and committed leader of the Sea Eagles and this will no doubt rub off on the playing group and the culture of the club.”
Toovey had to overcome difficult start to life in the hot seat when he was thrust into the role after the club was rocked to its foundations when Hasler was sacked just weeks after winning the grand final.
The two-time premiership-winning coach announced he would join Canterbury in 2012 but moved to Belmore a year early after being shown the door by Sea Eagles chairman Scott Penn for “systematic poaching or discussions with staff.”
There were fears that Manly would struggle without Hasler, but his former assistant coped admirably and played a major role in persuading five-eighth Kieran Foran to snub the Bulldogs and stay at the club.
“It’s great to be at the club for a couple more years,” Toovey said.
“I think it’s a fantastic place to be and to be a member and associated with.
“The club has got a great history and hopefully we will have many more years of success and support from the fans.
“We fell short last year but I’m quite confident we’ve got a side that can give it a shake this year and that’s exactly what we will be doing.”
Never short of an opinion, Toovey cautioned the NRL against continuing to make changes to the rules before the start of every season.
Last year saw the shoulder charge outlawed and this year there is a crackdown on the cannonball tackle – one of a number of new measures that will be implemented in 2014.
“I am still perplexed as to why they keep changing things,” Toovey said at the NRL season launch on Wednesday.
“Maybe now that we have more steady people in charge at the NRL maybe things will slow down a bit and we’ll get structures in place to see those decisions aren’t made on a willy nilly basis.
“We have to have some reasoning behind them. It’s going to be tough for the referees; there’s some real subjective things there.
“We’ll have to see how it pans out over the next few months and deal with them.”
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