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When it comes to messy coaching culls, this was one of the worst.
Manly, a club that likes to think its strength is its unity on the insular peninsular of Sydney’s north is in pieces after coach Des Hasler’s acrimonious departure on Thursday following a not so good, very bad and downright ugly standoff with chairman Scott Penn.
Contracted until the end of next year, Manly offered Hasler a deal they thought would be too bad to accept – let the club appoint a successor as assistant coach who would take over when your deal is done a year from now.
Hasler was too smart to refuse, knowing that if he rejected the club’s mandate that Anthony Seibold become his assistant, he would jeopardise a full payout of the remaining year of his contract.
He called their bluff and said he would fulfil his end of the bargain by indicating he would still turn up for pre-season training next month to prepare the team for 2023.
Des Hasler walks onto the field during Anzac Round. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
But the board met and swung the axe after their coded message to Hasler to fall on his sword was ignored.
The final nail in Hasler’s coffin in his second coming as Manly coach came on Tuesday night when Channel Nine aired an interview with Penn in which the club’s majority owner said “we have a premiership-winning team, what we need is a football department that can get us back there as quickly as possible”.
They had a pretty good roster this year, which will be about the same next year, not many neutral judges would declare Manly’s squad a title-winning one, even if you set aside the rather glaring fact that they haven’t won one.
Daly Cherry-Evans is the only player left from the team that won the Sea Eagles’ most recent premiership in 2011, three years after Hasler had also led them to Grand Final success.
Hasler could still begin legal action against the club in light of the pride jersey debacle that contributed to the team finishing 11th, which meant the coach did not trigger a clause which would have extended his contract into 2024 if the team had finished in the top six.
A leaked email exchange has shown that forewarning of the jersey was sent to the football department manager John Bonasera, who indicated he did not think it would be a problem with the players and failed to alert Hasler about the potential issue.
Jake and Tom Trbojevic. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
The most likely scenario is that Hasler will negotiate an out-of-court settlement with the Sea Eagles where he will get a large portion, if not all of his 2023 salary understood to be worth north of $850,000.
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Hasler, who was known by that nickname early in his playing days because he was so polite he’d apologise at the drop of a hat.
That’s not just due to the fact that he’s a club legend who played 256 first-grade matches in Manly maroon from 1984-96 and was a premiership-winning player in 1987 and in his final match for the club.
Or that he is the second-most capped coach in the club’s history behind Bob Fulton.
He was hung out to dry by the inclusivity jersey debacle, forced to front the media conference when seven of his players refused to line up for a crucial Round 20 clash with the Roosters because of their objection to the one-off strip due to cultural and religious reasons … also known as homophobic, but that’s their decision.
Hasler handled the delicate situation with aplomb under the glare of the cameras in a heaving media scrum but it appears that when he was asked why he was the club’s spokesperson/scapegoat and not the executives, he responded by saying you’d have to ask them.
Penn was out of the country as he spends most of his time based in New York, the club was between CEOs after Stephen Humphreys’ exit and impending arrival of Tony Mestrov.
Still, the silence from the front office spoke volumes about how much they truly valued Hasler.
They had the temerity to finally issue a statement around seven hours after news broke of Hasler’s keelhauling to say the board unanimously made the decision “in the best interests of the club”.
Anthony Seibold (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
He was described as an icon and an integral part of the club’s history with Mestrov, his former 1990s teammate, calling him “a great warrior for Manly for many years” while reassuring the fans who haven’t torn up their membership that the club was “doing everything it can to put in place the foundations for a successful era ahead”.
“The board and management are fully aligned with the future direction of the club and we look forward to positive news in the near future. I believe the Sea Eagles have a strong playing group and a list with depth and talent that can be forged into a successful team to challenge for premiership success.”
We’ll see.
It’s fair to say the club head honchos have been reining in Hasler since the last time they re-signed him, stipulating clauses to trigger extensions in his deal. That’s hardly a show of faith in someone who had been coaching for nearly two decades and had delivered the club’s only two titles since 1996.
The Sea Eagles were a laughing stock when he became coach in 2004. Manly, the once mighty glamour club known as the Silvertails for their position of privilege, was the subject of pity and derision, not hatred and envy, after the Northern Eagles shotgun marriage with the Bears predictably ended in an annulment.
Manly chairman Scott Penn with Des Hasler when his return to the club was announced four years ago. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
Hasler’s exit comes after the two older Trbojevic brothers – Tom and Jake – are worried about the mess at the club.
Both Tom and Jake Trbojevic are under contract until the end of 2026 and it’s unlikely they’ll wear any other colours in their career but when two of the nicest blokes in the NRL are arcing up amid a storm of deceit in their club, alarm bells should be ringing all over the Northern Beaches.
Seibold, who was previously an assistant coach at Manly during Trent Barrett’s stint at the helm, has been waiting in the wings to take over from Hasler. He was an assistant to England rugby union’s Australian coach Eddie Jones on their tour of Australia this year.
The former Souths and Broncos coach is expected to head back to England this weekend to tie up loose ends with England’s rugby set-up. His departure as their defensive coach a year out from a World Cup is a blow to Jones’ chances of getting his hands on the trophy.
A spokesperson for the Rugby Football Union told the UK Telegraph that Seibold was expected to stay with the team for the upcoming Tests against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa which if that remains the case, would mean he would not be on deck for the start of Manly’s pre-season campaign next month.
Penn and Mestrov should be the ones working hardest to appease the players’ concerns so that Seibold at least has a fighter’s chance of rebuilding the team.
“This is an incredibly emotional issue. Des walked out on us back in 2011 and I was the one who picked up the phone to bring him back to the club when no one else wanted him,” Penn said on Tuesday in reference to Hasler joining the Bulldogs after Manly’s premiership win 11 years ago and then returning to the club when Canterbury punted him.
When asked whether he would be sad if Hasler left the club, Penn replied: “Of course, he’s a legend of the club.”
That he is and the treatment he’s received in recent weeks leading up to his sacking would be horrible for anyone, let alone someone who has devoted 24 of his 61 years on this planet doing everything in his powers to make Manly a success.