Why turfin' Tooves is the wrong decision for Manly

Have been a fan for years ,have seen some of the best come and go,but TOOVEY is MANLY,and if the rumours are correct with his being replaced by Trent Barrett ,then all I can see is a MASSIVE no in reply by the Manly faithful to the people who have instigated Tooves removal.Shame on you all! There will be repercussions by the Manly members if Manly SHAFT a Club Legend.Let him run his FULL contract and lets see what next year brings. "Oh yeah of little faith".

I think you are being somewhat parochial and perhaps even naive BigJ. Sure Manly is on the decline at present and it may take a few years to recover. But Manly have been one of the top teams intermittently for the past fifty years. And they have faced doldrums before just as Souths have. The game is cyclic. After Manly's 1987 grand final victory, they were flogged the next year by Brisbane in their first game in '88. They faltered badly for several years but by the mid 90's they were back up there. Then SuperLeague almost destroyed them,. They were a week from closing their doors and in a far worse plight than they are today. But by around 2005 they were back on the rise again. This happens to all clubs from time to time and Manly are certainly going through a fall at present. But already there are signs in the juniors of a new group of players coming through. It is probable that Manly will struggle for a while but people in charge change, players move on, and suddenly you will probably find 4-5 years down the track Manly back up there contesting another grand final. To suggest because of the present period of crisis that that is the demise of Manly is totally contrary to how the history of the game has operated. Sure they may not for a long time be as successful for such a long duration all at once but I would be most surprised if in four or five years down the track, Manly are not back being seriously competitive and it could well be that Souths again will struggle at the bottom of the comp. That's how its been happening since the game started.

We have to face facts and they are that The Toov is on the way out at Manly , although not being a Silvertails supporter this would cause me great sadness because The Toov in his other guise as "The World's Most Angry Man" is far and away the most entertaining facet of watching a Manly vs Any Team game. The phsysical remonstrations, the facial contortions, the vociferous although unheard "C'mon what was that for/ that's not a penalty/ 10 in the bin FOR WHAT" , the banishing of the water bottle to a far corner of the coaches box etc etc. The Toov/WMAM is the ultimate sideshow entertainment and it would be a shame... no it would be a CRIME if his show was cut short.

I read that bozo is back at manly in some sort of "helper" role. that should make things interesting

You have all made great points but here Is the thing, the reasons why all the young players and good players have abanoded ship is they know that the glory days are over for manly. And hopefully they will never return. The last two premierships they won were handed to them on a platter because the NRL did not want the opposition at the time winning the cup ie (08 cause they did not want Melbourne winning the 100 year and 11 against the warriors cause they will never allow them to win. Which is a shame cause the warriors are a better side anyday compared to Manly. Now that the Rabbitohs have been reborn as the fan favourite there will be no room for Manly to win a premiership, there are two many other Sydney team's to pick from. So really the only thing to do is shut the doors lock the gate and bury Manly once and for all like it should of happened back when Super League come along the buggered things up.

i can tell u if they get rid of tooves that will be it for this board no on will want them there as a manly fan i can say that everyone i know is not blaming toovey and you will see a drop innumbers if they punt him

People leaving Manly at an astonishing rate.. Rats leaving a sinking ship... what is wrong that two young half backs (Best combo in the league) suddenly up and leave within weeks of each other -- and show no flair at all in the following games. Their usual Team play and defence becomes a shadow of last years, can't say it's because Watmough and Stewart aren't there, they were missing and playing injured most of last year. Even Snake looks second rate when he turns out... this is more than a coaching problem... it is the same problem that dragged the eels to the League Cellars for last few years... MISMANAGEMENT!..

Great writing and great article Dane. Congrats. .

Agree, Zorba is the problem. I don't like Manly, but sacking Toovey is the wrong decision, he is a good coach.

Penn can and will do what he wants. After years of split loyalties there is obviously going to be a lot of blood spilt now there is one powerful owner. It will be a case of short term chaos followed by long term stability. Then Manly can get back to winning matches and annoying everyone.

Could be seeing the dark side of private ownership here. The worry is Manly could drift away from being Manly and morph into a soulless NRL business venture plodding away without a care for long standing traditions. Tooves one of Manly's finest and the obvious candidate to re-build the Empire. Obviously there's plenty going on behind the scenes that we will never know about but the waft from the clubhouse has been getting stronger by the month. Unfortunately it could be difficult for Tooves to hang on. Especially when there are no alternate ownership options and the Penn's are feeding an eager media scrum.

Put Lyon is as Captain-Coach so he can slot straight into the role after retirement.

Thinking back to the darkest days over the past couple of decades from the mid-90s (the period of sustained success before this one). '95 - GF which they should have won. '96 - premiers. '97 - GF, beaten in the last few minutes. '98 - finished 10th and knocked out first week of the finals. Summary of that era? Aside from a sad finish to 1998, the team was always right up there. The coach? Bob Fulton. '99 - missed the finals for the first year in plenty. '00 - Northern Eagles debacle, finished third last. '01 - missed the finals again. '02 - missed the finals again. '03 - back as Manly, back at Brookie, but finished second last and bombed out the last four games conceding 50 points in each. The coach? Peter Sharp. '04 - Des comes on board, finished third last but announced privatisation and signing of Ben Kennedy and Brent Kite for 2005. '05 - much improved, made the finals for the first time since 1998. '06 - became a force again, finished fifth, made the second week of the finals. '07 - with Storm, led the comp all year, bombed out in the GF against a cheating team. '08 - again with Storm, led the comp all year, this time won the GF 40-0. '09 - slow start but recovered strong to finish in 5th and were beaten by a cheating team in finals week 1. '10 - average season, finished 8th. '11 - written off by most but were in the top two all year and won the GF. The coach? Des Hasler. '12 - top four all year, performed well in the finals until beaten by a rampant Storm in the prelim. '13 - finished top four but were surprise grand finalists in the eyes of many, but only lost the GF in the last 30 minutes. '14 - performed excellent all season and were favourites until the last few weeks, and only missed the prelims after an injury-ravaged team lost against the Dogs by a point. The coach? Geoff Toovey. Look - this is pure hypothesis. But there is a trend. Manly sides have always performed strongly when the coach is a club legend. My summary since the mid 90s shows four distinct eras there, and it's clear that our teams have performed strongest when the coach is somebody who is indoctrinated in the club, knows the culture, knows the environment and has an emotional link to the place. Even looking back to the 1980s, the club performed at its best when old clubbies were in charge e.g. Stanton, Fulton. Sure Peter Sharp cannot be held to blame for all of the club's problems across 1999-2003 but I don't think he ever really had the support of the playing group and he had free rein to choose his own squad from two teams in 1999, and 2000 was a bomb of a year. In today's world this sort of thing is becoming less and less relevant, but there's a pattern here for Manly. Am I suggesting that the club not punt Toovey for this alone? Of course not. But I don't see any other quality coaches on the market and Toovey is not to blame for our ridiculous injury list which is well above what a team would normally have to contend with at round six. People have short memories if they think booting him is a good idea - he performed above expectations in 2013 and 2014 and has maintained the successes of the Hasler era well until now. The group of core players who have been integral to the club's success over the past decade (Stewarts, Matai, Lyon, Kite, King, Ballin, Watmough) was always going to broke up as they all are within a few years of each other age-wise and again, Toovey can't be blamed for not being able to keep all of them. In this three full seasons as top-team coach he's earned the right to be persevered with after a tough few months. I really hope they don't sack Toovey.

Yes start the clean out by sacking Zorba off the board!

Toovey is Manly through and through. He is a fine coach, he was a great player, he is a magnificent leader. The way this Board has been treating him and the team and the fact that he has stood above it and come up with results under adversity says to me that Manly would be crazy to let him go. Sack the Board. Leave Toovey alone.

I think this conundrum can only be fixed by one man. A man who is not afraid to point the finger and he's not afraid to get them dirty...... It's time for HOPPA to be "inserted" into the coaching frame. You watch out quick the Digits are extracted then!