'The Club' provides plotline for Manly mess: Script set to play out with Hasler being shown the door

Des Hasler doesn’t look like a theatregoer but if he knows his Australian plays as well as he knows a rugby league playbook, the script for his remaining time as Manly coach does not make for happy reading.

The Club, David Williamson’s masterpiece written more than 45 years ago, is as relevant today as it ever was.

Just like The Grade Cricketer book is representative of every cricket club in the land, The Club is an accurate portrayal of pretty much every footy team from the amateur ranks to the top, irrespective of the code. 

Written about a VFL side, and portrayed as Collingwood in the film version in 1980, it tells the tale of a club legend who is coaching an under-performing team but his time is almost up because he doesn’t get along with the president/chairman while the coach’s former mentor was still meddling from afar with the top administrator/CEO trying to force him out.

The administrator has been brought into the club to clean up the mess of the previous seasons when the team has failed to adapt to the modern standards of the professional era.

It’s a club that has traditionally been insular, not wanting to bring in outsiders who don’t share their inherent DNA.

Sound familiar, Sea Eagles fans?

Des Hasler walks onto the field during Anzac Round. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

For tonight’s performance the part of Laurie Holden will be played by Des Hasler with Scott Penn in the role of president/chairman Ted Parker, the influential former mentor Jock Riley bears many similarities to the late, great Bob Fulton’s gravitas at Manly while newcomer Tony Mestrov fits the bill for Gerry Cooper, the new administrator parachuted in to fix the mess.

In the play, the president made his fortune in the pie industry whereas Penn has built his wealth by helping people lose weight. 

Fulton, the patriarch of the club for many years leading up to his death in May last year, wielded plenty of clout in key appointments, particularly in Hasler’s return to Manly in 2019 after his decision to place his faith in Trent Barrett ended in the rookie coach resigning. His children, Scott, Kristie and Brett hold roles at the club and have been accused of exerting too much influence in some quarters as the recent infighting has intensified. 

Mestrov, coincidentally, sounds similar to Rostoff in The Club, who is the coach that they want to bring in from another team to replace Holden even though it would be a break in tradition because he did not play for them.

It appears Manly are set to go down a similar path – one they rarely tread – in bringing in an outsider who didn’t wear the maroon and white on Fortress Brookvale with former Souths and Broncos coach Anthony Seibold and Sharks assistant Josh Hannay reportedly at the front of the queue to replace Hasler. 

Anthony Seibold. (Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

“There’s some talk that your contract mightn’t be renewed. Some of the committee feel that you’ve had a fair chance and haven’t come up with the goods.” Those words are uttered by Gerry the administrator in The Club but basically sum up the tone of the message Manly seem to be conveying to Hasler behind closed doors. 

In the movie version of The Club, the coach gets to stick it up the committee mob out to get him by turning the team’s fortunes around and taking them all the way to grand final glory.

Even if Hasler were to survive the off-season nest of vipers/Sea Eagles, it is improbable that he would be able to take the current roster to the premiership even if he gets the best out of his star player Tom Trbojevic, aka Geoff Hayward in The Club (incidentally, played by a much younger John Howard, not that one).

It is all shaping up as the third act in the coaching career of Hasler after he led Manly to a pair of premierships, took the Bulldogs consistently to the finals before being forced out and now suffering a similar fate back at the Sea Eagles.

Hasler deserves a degree of sympathy for how this season ended – the team went from a top-eight berth to plummet out of finals contention to finish 11th on the back of seven straight losses when seven first-graders refused to play in the second match of that streak due to the club’s “inclusivity jersey” because it conflicted with their cultural beliefs.

(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Whatever you think about that apportioning blame for that debacle, Hasler was unaware of the rainbow ruckus until it was too late for Round 20 and he did oversee a team that was missing the Turbo injection of the reigning Dally M Medal winner for most of the season due to shoulder surgery.

He’s under contract for next year and just like he did at the Dogs, he will not budge unless forced and will scrap to get every dollar owed in his contract. The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday night reported that he is considering legal action because the pride jersey debacle compromised his chances of finishing in the top six to trigger a 2024 contract extension clause in his contract. If they sack him, Manly could be facing a seven-figure payout if the legal threat comes to fruition.

It’s way too early to be writing the eulogy on his coaching career but would another club take him on? He is stuck in his ways but he has a success rate of making the playoffs in 14 of his 17 seasons starting way back in 2004 when he inherited a basket case Manly outfit coming out the other side of the Northern Eagles debacle.

He’s made the finals in nine of his 11 seasons at Manly and five of six at Canterbury. That kind of record means there will be another NRL side that will come calling, if he’s willing for another foray in the coaching helm realm.

Hasler doesn’t appear to be the type who could transition into a coaching director role, allowing someone else to seize control while he stays at arm’s length in the background. In true rugby league parlance, that’s not his go. 

The plot thickens with much more drama still to be played out but if you haven’t seen The Club on stage or screen, or read the book, track it down and you will see more than a few similarities between Williamson’s fictional footy fracas and the Sea Eagles shenanigans.