I can also shed some light on Tooves situation.
When Des took over at Manly, the Stewarts, Watmough, King, Matai, Lyon and co. were kids. Des was old school and brought these young guys through the grade. He did the same with Foran and Chez a few years later. The relationship between player and coach was established when these guys were babies and if Des said "jump", they asked "how high".
When Des left, Tooves jumped on board and the team had just won their second premiership. These guys were well and truly established as champions and they knew it. Toovey did not have the luxury of establishing himself as the "boss" before these guys were old enough and successful enough to start throwing their weight around (a luxury that Des had).
In short, it would seem the senior playing group undermined Toovey's position over a number of seasons (in the same way that Farah carried on the Tigers). Player power meant that Tooves never really had a chance. We all know Tooves is as hard as they come and was never going to take any **** lying down, so it's not hard to fathom how the relationship between coach and player became strained...it's also not hard to fathom then, why the club had to make the tough decision and let Toovey go...the damage was done and it was time to clean the place out.
Very sad though as Toovey is a great coach and an absolute champion...it was just timing and the situation at the club at the end of 2011. He was on a hiding to nothing unfortunately.
