HappilyManly
Journey Man
Welcome to this edition of Maroon & White News. Volume 2, April 2015
With so many different media stories surrounding our great Club over a long period of time, it’s often difficult to distinguish truth from fiction.
The Football Club doesn’t use the media to promote itself or publicly air its views on events happening at the Club, but sometimes others deliberately seek to misrepresent us or worse, fabricate for their own purposes.
Understandably members often demand answers and seek our viewpoint or position on different issues.
So in this edition of Maroon and White News we want to set the record straight and make the Football Club’s position quite clear on a few key issues.
Geoff Toovey
The Manly-Warringah Rugby League Football Club Board supports Coach Geoff Toovey unequivocally and unreservedly.
We do so not just because he is one of our Life Members and a legend of our Club and the game of rugby league, but because he deserves it as a Coach. The facts tell the story.
Geoff took the coaching reins unexpectedly in 2012. That year the Sea Eagles finished fourth on the ladder. In 2013 we also finished fourth and made our way through to the Grand Final with a sensational thumping of South Sydney - sadly however we didn’t win. We won’t go into the number of injustices there – needless to say, there should have been an investigation.
Last year, we finished equal first. In the ensuing semi-finals we were beaten by the eventual Premiers, South Sydney and, in the following week, by a golden point field goal (17-16) to the other grand finalists, the Bulldogs. We had come back from 16-nil to get to that position. We were missing Matt Ballin, Jamie Buhrer, Glenn Stewart, Anthony Watmough and Jorge Taufua, the Bulldogs had few, if any,injuries.
Three years as Coach, three finals, including a Grand Final.
Let’s look at 2015 so far. Injuries. One after the other. It’s only Round Six but because of the injuries, we’ve already used 25 players – the same number of players we would normally use over an entire season. No wonder the non-injured players on the field seem to be finding it hard to find their rhythm. Last Saturday night we lost two more players for several weeks.
To the best of our knowledge, there are ten players Geoff Toovey will not have available for next Saturday night’s game against the Bulldogs - almost an entire first grade team, including:
Brett Stewart - Jamie Lyon
Jorge Taufua - Josh Starling
Clinton Gutherson - Brenton Lawrence
Tom Trbojevic - Feleti Mateo
Tony Satini - Jesse Sene-Lefao
Geoff certainly doesn’t deserve the constant speculation and undermining of his position. He has more than earned the right to have the respect and complete support of the Club at a very difficult time.
We owe him no less.
Daly Cherry-Evans & Kieran Foran
Like all supporters, the Football Club Board has watched with dismay the way events have unfolded with respect to our two off-contract halves.
It is the Football Club Board’s view that Daly Cherry-Evans has been treated unfairly, particularly by the media. His decision to move to the Gold Coast was disappointing, but understandable.
We strongly believe Daly wanted to stay at the Club. The Football Club Board was certainly of the understanding that just prior to the ownership change he and his management had agreed to terms and Daly was going to remain with the Sea Eagles for many years.
The Gold Coast Titans are fortunate to have secured not only an extremely talented player, but an extraordinary young man and future leader.
Equally, the Eels are fortunate to have secured the services of Kieran Foran – like Daly, he will undoubtedly end up leading his club and country.
The loss of these two outstanding individuals is immeasurable, but all we can do is wish them both all the very best in all aspects of their future careers.
Glenn Stewart
It seems incredible that one year on we are still talking about Glenn Stewart's departure from the Sea Eagles. Glenn is now playing exceptionally well for his new Club, South Sydney. It’s difficult to imagine how Glenn himself must feel each time this issue is raised and picked over yet again by individuals unable to let go or move on.
And yet, here we are.
For the record – there was never a Sea Eagles Board decision not to offer Glenn a contract. There was never a Boardroom vote on retaining or not retaining Glenn. The ultimately unsuccessful negotiations around Glenn’s contract was done away from the Boardroom.
So for long-term Chairman Scott Penn to claim in his recent Daily Telegraph interview that there was a 4-3 vote on the Board against retaining Glenn Stewart is simply wrong – there was no vote.
But was the whole affair mishandled by the Club as a whole? Yes probably. And that is something we should all take responsibility for, learn from and move on.
Junior League
Two weeks ago, Sea Eagles Board Member Peter Peters once more used his regular column in the Manly Daily to criticise the Football Club.
The issue was junior league development in the local area. The article stated:
“The cold hard facts are that the junior reps have been virtually neglected in recent times. The [district] football club has spent $150,000 buying shares in the Sea Eagles rather than spend any money on the juniors … that attitude must change”.
It is certainly worth noting the following cold hard facts:
· It is the constitutionally-based charter of the Manly-Warringah Rugby League Football Club to purchase shares in the Sea Eagles – this was a condition under which members agreed to the Club’s privatisation;
· The $150,000 in shares quoted in the article has not only increased the Football Club Members’ shareholding in the Sea Eagles, but has made a direct financial contribution to the Sea Eagles, yet unlike a sponsor, we receive no recognition for that contribution; and
· In the entire two years (2011-13) Mr Peters served on the Board of the Football Club there was not one single occasion where he raised the issue of funding junior league.
It goes without saying that the Football Club Board strongly supports junior league in the area and the promotion of more talented local juniors through the ranks - like Geoff Toovey, Steve Menzies and Jason King.
We are certainly encouraged by the early success of our Holden Cup side this year which includes several local juniors alongside some excellent recruits.
Sea Eagles Board
The role of the Sea Eagles Board in the management of the Club has been vastly overstated.
Not that you would know that from the media who persist in reporting about Boardroom problems at the Club.
As members are aware, as part of the Preference Share, the Football Club Board has two representatives on the Sea Eagles Board.
As a seven person board, this means the Penn family hold the other five positions, including the Chairman.
Since the ownership change the Board has met on just two occasions and it has been made clear to the Football Club representatives that it will meet only very occasionally.
Football Club representatives on the Board have neither been informed of nor consulted on any matters relating to player retention.
The new CEO has quite correctly established a retention and recruitment committee which oversees all such matters. The Chairman is part of this Committee, but there are no other Board members represented.
Final Word
As we have said previously, since the ownership change last year, the Football Club Board has made all efforts to work constructively and harmoniously with the owners and new management.
We have concerns about the risks of the single owner model - just look at the Newcastle Knights with Nathan Tinkler – now run by the NRL with no member rights. But we were keenly aware that Club supporters, coaching staff and even the players themselves were tired of the power struggles between the two owners (with the Football Club in the middle) and the negative press that ensued.
Everyone wants a united club pulling in the same direction to ensure we continue our extraordinary history of success. That is a wish the Football Club Board sincerely shares.
Clearly the ownership change presents an opportunity to test whether the Club will fare better under a single owner.
While it’s a difficult time for the Club we urge all members to stay strong and keep the faith.
GO MANLY!
Your Board
Bob Stevenson Cliff Lyons
Bob Reilly Darrell Williams
Chris Jones Mal Cochrane
Julie Sibraa
With so many different media stories surrounding our great Club over a long period of time, it’s often difficult to distinguish truth from fiction.
The Football Club doesn’t use the media to promote itself or publicly air its views on events happening at the Club, but sometimes others deliberately seek to misrepresent us or worse, fabricate for their own purposes.
Understandably members often demand answers and seek our viewpoint or position on different issues.
So in this edition of Maroon and White News we want to set the record straight and make the Football Club’s position quite clear on a few key issues.
Geoff Toovey
The Manly-Warringah Rugby League Football Club Board supports Coach Geoff Toovey unequivocally and unreservedly.
We do so not just because he is one of our Life Members and a legend of our Club and the game of rugby league, but because he deserves it as a Coach. The facts tell the story.
Geoff took the coaching reins unexpectedly in 2012. That year the Sea Eagles finished fourth on the ladder. In 2013 we also finished fourth and made our way through to the Grand Final with a sensational thumping of South Sydney - sadly however we didn’t win. We won’t go into the number of injustices there – needless to say, there should have been an investigation.
Last year, we finished equal first. In the ensuing semi-finals we were beaten by the eventual Premiers, South Sydney and, in the following week, by a golden point field goal (17-16) to the other grand finalists, the Bulldogs. We had come back from 16-nil to get to that position. We were missing Matt Ballin, Jamie Buhrer, Glenn Stewart, Anthony Watmough and Jorge Taufua, the Bulldogs had few, if any,injuries.
Three years as Coach, three finals, including a Grand Final.
Let’s look at 2015 so far. Injuries. One after the other. It’s only Round Six but because of the injuries, we’ve already used 25 players – the same number of players we would normally use over an entire season. No wonder the non-injured players on the field seem to be finding it hard to find their rhythm. Last Saturday night we lost two more players for several weeks.
To the best of our knowledge, there are ten players Geoff Toovey will not have available for next Saturday night’s game against the Bulldogs - almost an entire first grade team, including:
Brett Stewart - Jamie Lyon
Jorge Taufua - Josh Starling
Clinton Gutherson - Brenton Lawrence
Tom Trbojevic - Feleti Mateo
Tony Satini - Jesse Sene-Lefao
Geoff certainly doesn’t deserve the constant speculation and undermining of his position. He has more than earned the right to have the respect and complete support of the Club at a very difficult time.
We owe him no less.
Daly Cherry-Evans & Kieran Foran
Like all supporters, the Football Club Board has watched with dismay the way events have unfolded with respect to our two off-contract halves.
It is the Football Club Board’s view that Daly Cherry-Evans has been treated unfairly, particularly by the media. His decision to move to the Gold Coast was disappointing, but understandable.
We strongly believe Daly wanted to stay at the Club. The Football Club Board was certainly of the understanding that just prior to the ownership change he and his management had agreed to terms and Daly was going to remain with the Sea Eagles for many years.
The Gold Coast Titans are fortunate to have secured not only an extremely talented player, but an extraordinary young man and future leader.
Equally, the Eels are fortunate to have secured the services of Kieran Foran – like Daly, he will undoubtedly end up leading his club and country.
The loss of these two outstanding individuals is immeasurable, but all we can do is wish them both all the very best in all aspects of their future careers.
Glenn Stewart
It seems incredible that one year on we are still talking about Glenn Stewart's departure from the Sea Eagles. Glenn is now playing exceptionally well for his new Club, South Sydney. It’s difficult to imagine how Glenn himself must feel each time this issue is raised and picked over yet again by individuals unable to let go or move on.
And yet, here we are.
For the record – there was never a Sea Eagles Board decision not to offer Glenn a contract. There was never a Boardroom vote on retaining or not retaining Glenn. The ultimately unsuccessful negotiations around Glenn’s contract was done away from the Boardroom.
So for long-term Chairman Scott Penn to claim in his recent Daily Telegraph interview that there was a 4-3 vote on the Board against retaining Glenn Stewart is simply wrong – there was no vote.
But was the whole affair mishandled by the Club as a whole? Yes probably. And that is something we should all take responsibility for, learn from and move on.
Junior League
Two weeks ago, Sea Eagles Board Member Peter Peters once more used his regular column in the Manly Daily to criticise the Football Club.
The issue was junior league development in the local area. The article stated:
“The cold hard facts are that the junior reps have been virtually neglected in recent times. The [district] football club has spent $150,000 buying shares in the Sea Eagles rather than spend any money on the juniors … that attitude must change”.
It is certainly worth noting the following cold hard facts:
· It is the constitutionally-based charter of the Manly-Warringah Rugby League Football Club to purchase shares in the Sea Eagles – this was a condition under which members agreed to the Club’s privatisation;
· The $150,000 in shares quoted in the article has not only increased the Football Club Members’ shareholding in the Sea Eagles, but has made a direct financial contribution to the Sea Eagles, yet unlike a sponsor, we receive no recognition for that contribution; and
· In the entire two years (2011-13) Mr Peters served on the Board of the Football Club there was not one single occasion where he raised the issue of funding junior league.
It goes without saying that the Football Club Board strongly supports junior league in the area and the promotion of more talented local juniors through the ranks - like Geoff Toovey, Steve Menzies and Jason King.
We are certainly encouraged by the early success of our Holden Cup side this year which includes several local juniors alongside some excellent recruits.
Sea Eagles Board
The role of the Sea Eagles Board in the management of the Club has been vastly overstated.
Not that you would know that from the media who persist in reporting about Boardroom problems at the Club.
As members are aware, as part of the Preference Share, the Football Club Board has two representatives on the Sea Eagles Board.
As a seven person board, this means the Penn family hold the other five positions, including the Chairman.
Since the ownership change the Board has met on just two occasions and it has been made clear to the Football Club representatives that it will meet only very occasionally.
Football Club representatives on the Board have neither been informed of nor consulted on any matters relating to player retention.
The new CEO has quite correctly established a retention and recruitment committee which oversees all such matters. The Chairman is part of this Committee, but there are no other Board members represented.
Final Word
As we have said previously, since the ownership change last year, the Football Club Board has made all efforts to work constructively and harmoniously with the owners and new management.
We have concerns about the risks of the single owner model - just look at the Newcastle Knights with Nathan Tinkler – now run by the NRL with no member rights. But we were keenly aware that Club supporters, coaching staff and even the players themselves were tired of the power struggles between the two owners (with the Football Club in the middle) and the negative press that ensued.
Everyone wants a united club pulling in the same direction to ensure we continue our extraordinary history of success. That is a wish the Football Club Board sincerely shares.
Clearly the ownership change presents an opportunity to test whether the Club will fare better under a single owner.
While it’s a difficult time for the Club we urge all members to stay strong and keep the faith.
GO MANLY!
Your Board
Bob Stevenson Cliff Lyons
Bob Reilly Darrell Williams
Chris Jones Mal Cochrane
Julie Sibraa
