Not re-signing Glenn Stewart in 2014

[Scorpio]

I would like to know... If you were in the position of our administration at the time, what would you have done?

I just want to say that I get a little annoyed that people still refer to this decision alone as a catalyst of Manly's downfall.

In 2014, largely due to the previously signed back-ended contracts, we:
- Had already offloaded Brent Kite
- Were paying a lot of money for aging players B.Stewart, G.Stewart, A.Watmough, J.Lyon S.Matai, as well as K.Foran and D.Cherry-Evans,
- Had to have some money to afford future recruits
- Had to have some money to upgrade contracts of players like DCE and Foran.

Now, as we know the club did not re-sign Glenn Stewart and a lot of average team performances seemed to follow that, including many disinterested looking performances of several of our players.

Without knowing the specific contract details or what was said behind closed doors, I'm not sure much else could have been done. A lot of the other players above were still under contract. If the club had tried to farm out Watmough (this was before his "I hate Manly" interview), Lyon, Matai, or Brett Stewart there would have been just as much outrage.

If we had no salary cap and no back-ended contracts, then we would have re-signed Glenn Stewart. Unfortunately we have neither of those things and we had to make a hard decision. In some ways we are still paying the price of this.

Thoughts?

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

It was the right decision, then and now!!

Trouble is, ZtH and his great mate Baz Stewart didn't think so!!

And therin lies the heart of the problem.

 

[MadMarcus]

It was always going to be hard but I don't think the club handled it well. Gift had come out and said it wasn't about the money, so imo the club should have put something in the table, or if they didn't want him at any price they should have been up front about it. From what I have read they just left him hanging, which wasn't fair.

I don't buy that this is the sole reason for our current woes thought. We didn't just botch the Gift situation. The botchings of the DCE and Foran contracts in 2015, and also the botching of Des' contract in 2011 all played their part.

 

[Bearfax]

It was the catalyst that ended Manly's great reign. But it merely preempted what was inevitable. Just unfortunate that it caused a rift in the team that is only now resolved.

 

[Shoe1]

It has been terrible ever since since max intervened with monas in 2006. We would definitely have won 7 or 8 premierships since if that hadn't happened.

 

[Enigma]

The right way to behave if you are a player being shifted on and those who don't agree with the descision is best shown by players like Brent Kite who no doubt consider the club's welfare also. Forget all the nonsense about players not being happy when tapped on the shoulder and this justifying poor behaviour, for what ever reason. Why? Because players do the same thing to clubs all the time and if players are going to quote "It's a business and I have to do the best for myself" and shift clubs ( which is fine of course) , then they can hardly complain if when their time is up the club does the same. As far as I understand if players consider this a business then they are the employees and under a contract. what was the right way to send Gift off? Things can always be handled better . Clubs have to make unpopular choices and people will be unhappy. Give the choice to the close mates of Gift he and them would still be here I guess , gee that would be fun. If players want full control of clubs they can buy the club and do what they want. The Eels hooker moved on with great dignity yet Robbie Farrer was given the best tip by Fatty to "move on trust me it will end in tears" and guess what ,tears.

 

[Enigma]

I would like to know... If you were in the position of our administration at the time, what would you have done?

I just want to say that I get a little annoyed that people still refer to this decision alone as a catalyst of Manly's downfall.

In 2014, largely due to the previously signed back-ended contracts, we:
- Had already offloaded Brent Kite
- Were paying a lot of money for aging players B.Stewart, G.Stewart, A.Watmough, J.Lyon S.Matai, as well as K.Foran and D.Cherry-Evans,
- Had to have some money to afford future recruits
- Had to have some money to upgrade contracts of players like DCE and Foran.

Now, as we know the club did not re-sign Glenn Stewart and a lot of average team performances seemed to follow that, including many disinterested looking performances of several of our players.

Without knowing the specific contract details or what was said behind closed doors, I'm not sure much else could have been done. A lot of the other players above were still under contract. If the club had tried to farm out Watmough (this was before his "I hate Manly" interview), Lyon, Matai, or Brett Stewart there would have been just as much outrage.

If we had no salary cap and no back-ended contracts, then we would have re-signed Glenn Stewart. Unfortunately we have neither of those things and we had to make a hard decision. In some ways we are still paying the price of this.

Thoughts?

As Warren Ryan said ,"ageing players aren't the best judge of their own performance" but more of their future performance ( not 100% true ,Jamie Lyon and Cliffy who was maybe the best judge of his ageing capabilities)

 

[Fluffy]

He was out most injured player for the previous 3 seasons and spent a lot of time on the sideline in 2015 as well.

If we had kept him we would have been further hit with injuries and been even worse.

BJ will be cut this year for the same reason - you just can't carry that much salary cap on the sidelines year after year and win games.

 

[Ralphie]

The beginning of the end was losing Hasler. Had he still been here the Gift situation would have been properly dealt with.

 

[Ryan]

If Glenn wanted a new contract, I'd have given it to him.