2014 to 2018 a decline of once great club and a story of fan disengagement

[niccipops]

We are all frustrated with the team, the comp, everything at the moment and we all have our individual Manly histories and reasons for our current feelings.
BUT personally I find some of the attitudes of our fans even more disturbing than the team's current sad situation.
Give up on Manly and the NRL has won.
It's what they want.
Stick with the team and we'll all come out the other side and it's going to take some time.
Don't let the NRL and Todd win.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

well, Pearce missing the nxt 4 months may help us next week. Still sad, we need to rely on opposition key players being injured to have a shot at winning games

Maybe they'll help play us back into form. Although the problem is that if we get back into form the major issues coming out will all be swept under the carpet. Barrett will appear a capable coach, our side seem well balanced and telanted, our culture will appear strengthened. This can't happen.

Decision day has come and gone with Barrett, he might be a decent coach, although we now all know he sure ain't a Manly coach. Baz can't take us to the future, and if we start picking our form up again he will be stuck here and remain until he has well and truly grinded out all bits of manly we have left, meaning we'll need to have a major rebuild again.

We need to fix the issue as soon as we can identify it, not once it's too late. He's had enough time and we've seen enough

 

[maxta]

I remember reading a post a few weeks back about how many feel like they have lost a part of the club.

I’ll sum the feeling up with one word, ‘disengaged’.
As many of you know I have been a passionate supporter of this one great club for almost 40 years. Spent hours on planes and buses travelling to watch the Manly I love. From Elland Road Leeds to Wollongong stadium.
However today this is merely a shadow of that club.

The club hasn’t been the same since 2014 and the change of ownership. Unlike many I was excited about the Penns taking total control of the club. I met Scott in Leeds and he seems like a genuine nice bloke who has the clubs best interest at heart but to be honest since he took full control of the club in 2014 thing have gone from bad to worse. This post would be massive if I explained it all so I’ll do it with dot points.

* Geoff Toovey harshly treated and sacked after one bad season only 12 months after taking the side to the top 4.
* Club legends and premiership players ballin, Buhrer, matai, Brett Stewart (one of clubs best players in history) and local junior gutherson all forced out of the club.
* Peter Peters referring to fans who expressed the disappointment at the clubs performance as dummies who have no idea. Fantastic way for a club employee to talk about fans the club want to buy memberships.
* The new media manager in 2015 bulk blocking of long time members on social media who express the views on the clubs poor performance. Oh and Wayne I know you read this forums feel free to pick up the phone and call me and I’ll happily share my views with you and they are views shared by several other long term paying members you felt the need to block.
* The revolving door of CEO’s recruited and moved on Dave Perry, Joe Kelly, Tim Cleary and now Lyle Gorman. 4 CEO’s in 4 years nothing like a lack of stability at the top.
* The salary cap rubbish that has happened under this management and has hurt the brand of this once great club.
* An assistant coach moved on amongst claims of bullying from another football club employee.
* Then the latest rubbish around Hastings and DCE where it’s clear our coach in out of his depth and has mislead the members with what really happened in Gladstone and hung Hastings out to dry.
* On top of that throw up the rubbish the team has trotted out the last two weeks and has happened way to often under Barrett’s time as coach.

I fell in love with this club in 1980 and there’s been a lot of highs and some lows but I’ve always been proud to say I’m a manly supporter but hand on my heart I can’t say that at moment. Watching manly games is a chore I watch them but there’s no enjoyment at all. I don’t think there any coincidence that this has all happened over last 4 years. Some big things have to change or I’d be surprised if we still have a club in 4 or 5 years.

I have sat at a game with this bloke in Brisbane and can say there is no personal agenda...it’s from the heart...sad part is I go for about 98.5% of the call...this is a true Seaeagle supporter who like many more here - just want a Manly team who has a dig....

 

[winnyason]

Bottom line is where still in a rebuild. And trent ****ed up by letting green go

 

[NYEagle]

View attachment 8121

I remember it like yesterday mate. This game begun our downfall!

It started with the unpunished tackle from Isaac Luke on Steve Matai in that very game.

The other day that sticks in my memory forever is August 30, 2014 when Manly 26 beat Penrith 25. That was my last big thrill as a Manly supporter. It was a priviledge to be there.

Since then we were sold Trent Barrett and Lewis Brown by snake oil salesman Phil Gould.

Look at Manly now, look at Penrith now.

NYEagle

 

[joeboy]

Bottom line is where still in a rebuild. And trent ****ed up by letting green go

For the 300th time, this is not on baz, green and his slimy manager agitated for a release, bad mouthing the club, not turning up to training, destabilising and becoming toxic around the club. We had no choice.

Green should be lambasted in these parts' not deified.

 

[Cameron]

Read the below. Another indication that there’s a real lack of integrity in our club and coach has lied to everyone last week.


Real story is Hastings is on a backend deal worth $330k this season that also has trigger clauses in it that activate 1st July - & he & a couple of others with similar deals have been aimed up to exit. All smoke & mirrors, with on this occasion Hastings trashed as an excuse.
.

 

[Peter C]

No, the major trigger was Glenn Stewart’s departure and that decision was made by the a Quantum clique. The Foran & DCE contract sagas were a direct consequence of the Gifty debacle.

True, and Toovey was part of the Quantum clique , along with the MWDRLFC, and David Perry, all of this along with the non signing again of Glen Stewart created a schism in the club, hence Toovey losing the support of the players, then the Foran/ Evans contract debacle, where we had to pay overs to get DCE back as Foran was stringing us all along with no real intention of signing with us.

 

[The Who]

I have been following this club since the late 1950s when my father used to take me to Brookie as a six year old. I'm as passionate as anyone, but yesterday for the first time in memory I deliberately avoided watching or listening to the match, fearing a performance that would put me in a foul mood for the next week. I did check the score well after full time and, frankly wasn't surprised yet I wasn't overly gutted.
I think that showed I've reached my 'tipping point' with my support.
I'm disgusted with the NRL, the refs and the manipulation of matches. But I'd still turn up on the Hill at Brookie for every home game, watch the earlier match/s, and believe that Manly had a good chance of winning; if not, then at least competing honourably.
This current team, and the club as a whole, need to show me why I should invest so much passion in them when they are not doing the same in return. I'll always follow Manly, but until things change it will be from afar - until they restore pride in the famous jersey that should be a privilege for them to wear.

 

[conanu]

Big mistakes were made when Barrett came in. He let Buhrer go and Gutherson, 2 quality players albeit injury prone and replaced them with Sironen, Uate and Lewis Brown. Im sorry but those 2 were guys that combined with the Turbos and DCE we could have built a club around and maintained a culture. instead we went for these quick fix has beens and look where it has got us.

 

[Cameron]

Big mistakes were made when Barrett came in. He let Buhrer go and Gutherson, 2 quality players albeit injury prone and replaced them with Sironen, Uate and Lewis Brown. Im sorry but those 2 were guys that combined with the Turbos and DCE we could have built a club around and maintained a culture. instead we went for these quick fix has beens and look where it has got us.

Sironen is a good signing. You look back to last season we struggled without him

 

[Peter C]

Sironen is a good signing. You look back to last season we struggled without him

They were/are good players and that is all, both were/are injury prone, I don't regret the signing of Sirro, however I do believe there's more hype around Gutherson than substance, at the time we had Stewart and Tom T, they money that they offered Gutherson was way over what we were prepared to pay him, especially if he was going to play on the wing for us.

 

[Kevinward777]

We are going Sh1t... but we are also being stitched up big time. I agree that the best Manly sides had the character and drive to overcome adversity, sadly lacking in this current squad. But this season, the bias against us has been at a whole other level. Everyone is aware of the fact we are a fair weather side, capable enough to blow sides away when we have an even share of possession and receive our fair share of calls. Why do we know how the game is going to unfold each week?
- 5th tackle penalties to start the game, and fourth and fifth tackle penalties against us at crucial times in the game.
- pinged for offsides while opposition are allowed to come out of the line from off side positions at will. Go and watch the games again, it’s farking obvious.
-when we get a penalty 9 times out of ten it’s on tackle 1 or 2.
- Most times an opposing player loses a ball it’s deemed to be a strip. But when it happens to us, most times it will be ruled a knock on.
- We never get a 50/50 call eg Api’s pass to Thompson against the Tits, Kelly yesterday twice. The on field call of try at the end of the game against the Titans.
I could go on and on.
I don’t understand why Barrett doesn’t get the video of these incidents, in particular the offside farce, and show it to the media, speak out about it, farkin point it out. If I can see it so clearly then it should be so obvious to him. Why are we just laying down and being strong armed into competing on an unfair playing field. It must be very very frustrating for the players.

 

[TWO DOGS]

We are going Sh1t... but we are also being stitched up big time. I agree that the best Manly sides had the character and drive to overcome adversity, sadly lacking in this current squad. But this season, the bias against us has been at a whole other level. Everyone is aware of the fact we are a fair weather side, capable enough to blow sides away when we have an even share of possession and receive our fair share of calls. Why do we know how the game is going to unfold each week?
- 5th tackle penalties to start the game, and fourth and fifth tackle penalties against us at crucial times in the game.
- pinged for offsides while opposition are allowed to come out of the line from off side positions at will. Go and watch the games again, it’s farking obvious.
-when we get a penalty 9 times out of ten it’s on tackle 1 or 2.
- Most times an opposing player loses a ball it’s deemed to be a strip. But when it happens to us, most times it will be ruled a knock on.
- We never get a 50/50 call eg Api’s pass to Thompson against the Tits, Kelly yesterday twice. The on field call of try at the end of the game against the Titans.
I could go on and on.
I don’t understand why Barrett doesn’t get the video of these incidents, in particular the offside farce, and show it to the media, speak out about it, farkin point it out. If I can see it so clearly then it should be so obvious to him. Why are we just laying down and being strong armed into competing on an unfair playing field. It must be very very frustrating for the players.

100% agree Kevinward777. The reason Barrett doesn't say anything is the $10,000 fine. I noticed early in the last game that we stood back and let the Eels run so we were not pinged but they still nailed us. Absolute joke.

 

[cherry_poppins]

It's not an ideal situation

Personally while everyone would rather better on field results and we can be disappointed in not winning a comp, or at this very time competing at all I still want us to win, I still watch every game etc.

For me the whole thread isn't about on field success but a hatred of the 3 big pigs who run the club, also Fulton can stay ****ed off like he did when he left for easts

We're being brought down from the inside from the cancer that is our owners and they are a cancer

They'll take the money, move us to Perth and be out there back door, they're only about self interest, that money won't go to the club either

They are the reason we're ****, it's all on them, they think they're bigger than our club which is why I refuse to financially support the club anymore

**** the Penns and their little bitchslap boy coach

 

[Chip and Chase]

Go to any fan forum of any losing side and it’ll be the same whinging about dud calls and biased refereeing. Difference is they aren’t leaking 50 points against a side that couldn’t beat time with a stick. You can’t excuse the lack of effort and commitment of this side over the last 3 weeks on some poor referee decisions. How many points have we given up the last 3 weeks ? Over 100 - that’s not a team taking their defence seriously, and in my opinion defence is all about attitude. Our attitude is poor and we have no leader in this side to change it.

 

[OneEyedEagle]

Read the below. Another indication that there’s a real lack of integrity in our club and coach has lied to everyone last week.


Real story is Hastings is on a backend deal worth $330k this season that also has trigger clauses in it that activate 1st July - & he & a couple of others with similar deals have been aimed up to exit. All smoke & mirrors, with on this occasion Hastings trashed as an excuse.
.

Correct me if I am wrong, is Barrett solely responsible for recruitment now? Not all the pieces of the puzzle are matching and I feel that Barrett has been thrown under a bus on this one. Most likely Zth made him front up to the media and told what to say?

In the press conference, I did not hear anywhere where Barrett claimed that no one within the squad didn't want to play with Hastings, just some players have had issues with him. Who are those players? We don't know what is really going on, only what we have heard from the media.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/video/league/nrl/barrett-opens-up-on-hastings!675412

There seems to have been some issues with Hastings over the course of the last 12 months with formal discussions recently taking place between the club, his manager, and the RL Player welfare officer.

In the press conference I gauge the door is still open for Hastings to come back into the first-grade team, Barrett never really stated the door is shut and media are blowing this all out of proportion.

Remember we are short on players from a roster of 29 we are down by 4 or 5 players.

This is going to take some character building by young Hastings and has a lot on his shoulders. I hope he can prove them all wrong and win his spot back in the side.

The other players in the side have to be inclusive and that has to be driven by management, i.e. coaching staff.