Scott Penn – you cannot be serious. Geoff Toovey is the man to have at the helm of the Sea Eagles, even if the club has a shocker of a season and finishes with the competition dregs.
The man is a proven winner firstly as a player, and now as a coach. If Mr Penn has a better coaching candidate to steer the club out of its current predicament (1 win from 6 games), I’d love to know who it is.
The Manly club is struggling with an appalling injury list and there probably isn’t a coach alive who would be faring better after the first six NRL rounds.
Voicing a public warning to Toovey after a rocky start to the 2015 season is, in my opinion, nothing more than the action of a grandstander, or media hog.
OK, Scott, your family now owns the majority share in the Manly club and you hold the title of chairman but does that really entitle you to make not-so-veiled threats at the coach so early in the season?
You might look more than a little foolish in a month or two when the team’s injury crisis clears and some favourable results are on the board.
You might also like to consider joining the same page as your CEO Joe Kelly who has publicly stated that Toovey will run out the course of his contract “at least until the end of 2017.”
How the Manly club can function smoothly with so diametrically opposite views from senior staffers is beyond me.
It’s a terrible look for your club’s supporters and sponsors and as for the players and coach, well, if you continue along the same path, Brookie Oval games will become more like funeral pyres than events to be enjoyed and anticipated.
Toovey doesn’t have to prove a thing after hurriedly taking the reins of the senior team when Des Hasler switched to Canterbury a week after the club’s 2011 grand final triumph.
Since then, the Eagles have finished runner-up once and made the finals on two other occasions.
The guy can coach and looks to be a pretty good man manager. Perhaps his media performances could be a little more tactful, but the journos don’t miss many of his conferences. There’s always something juicy for their notebooks and tape recorders.
Fox Sports pundit Ben Ikin suggested this week Toovey should be playing a smarter off-field game, ingratiating himself with the club’s power brokers who might stick firm in times of strife (such as now).
If you know Geoff Toovey – and I do pretty well – that will not be happening. He is all about the football; politics is played on alien turf.
I have watched and listened closely as Manly’s senior players have gushed praise and support for the head coach. Of course that’s to be expected – bag the coach and you can say hello to the interchange bench, the NSW Cup or worse.
I believe players such as Jamie Lyon, Matt Ballin, Steve Matai and newcomer Willie Mason are genuine in their support. Brett Stewart? Maybe not as supportive, as he felt mortally wounded when his brother Glenn was allowed to leave for South Sydney.
Toovey will again show what he can do as a senior coach when the club’s injury toll abates.
Of course injuries are part and parcel of the game – all clubs get them – but he has been sending his team out with three, four and sometimes five players missing.
It is obvious Manly lacks the depth and experience to compete in such circumstances.
After such a dreadful start, the finals might already be out of reach for the maroon and whites but hanging a very public axe over the coach’s head is not going to help things one little bit.
Manly followers would rather hear their chairman talk of some recruiting plans for 2016 and beyond with a war chest said to be in excess of $2 million to attract some new halves and some much needed forward firepower.
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